Little Bit of Devil In Those Angel Eyes
by DeathWish1234
Summary: It all started 15 years ago when Zim killed the Tallest's children, well one of them. As the years passed the Tallest found out about what Zim did and start searching the galaxy to hunt him down and get rid of him. Zim being the new father of his fifteen year old daughter learns about the tallest's plan from an old friend. How far will one of them go to save the other ones life?R
1. Prologue

**A/N: Ok so this is just some random Idea that came to me after I rode my horse through the woods and came upon an old broken down, rusty car. I didn't even know where the hell I was but the idea just randomly came to me. I'm weird like that. So here's the prologue hope you enjoy and please review. I won't update for a few days because I'm going camping so no flames please.**

**DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING BUT MY OC AND THE PLOT LINE! THANK YOU NO FLAMES! I ALSO GOT THE TITLE FROM THE SONG LITTLE BIT OF DEVIL IN THOSE ANGEL EYES SO NO FLAMES ABOUT THAT EITHER FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO KNOW IT! THANK YOU! Also all characters are OOC in this so get over it an enjoy =)**

**Please review! ~Cari**

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Prologue

Narrator's POV.

Pain coursed through her body as she ran as fast as she could. Feet pounded after her as orders were shouted and shots were fired. 'Keep running, just keep running, he can't get you if you're faster than him.' The thought kept running through her head as she pumped her arms harder and continued to sprint.

His face kept flashing through her mind making her want to drop to the ground and give up. He took everything from her. Her family, her friends, her love and now he was planning on taking her life. "Fire!" The order was shouted.

Bullets and lasers whizzed by making her head pound and ring. She clenched her teeth together and kept running as the soldiers behind her kept trailing her. Her apartment wasn't far from here and maybe an innocent by standard would try an intervene giving her some more time.

The city streets were pretty at this time of night, buildings shimmered in a glamorous way as small lights twinkled off of them. Random street parties could be heard blocks away from the actual location and the pounding of the music's beat shook the ground like a point two earthquake.

The lower streets weren't as fortunate. Water pooled in small puddles and dips in the brick sidewalks as rats ran across the to get to the sewers. People hung around with small shops to sell things that were worthless to the higher power. These people were the forgotten rejects called defectives because of the scars they earned protecting the rights they believed in. Some died of infection from the open wounds they got working their asses off to please their leaders. It was all for nothing. What happened to the once thriving Empire?

Children born in this dark, run down part of the city saw the higher power people as enemies. In a sense they were, but what they'd never understand was how they could flip the power so easily. Or so some thought, in reality if they tried to do anything they'd think they were getting away with it for a while before being chased all the way back to the lower country and captured, killed or worse. This is why she was running; her plan failed her, HE failed her and she thought he actually cared. In truth she was only being used for anything he wished. She should've known.

All he ever wanted was to be with her, but for what? Nothing that's what. It was all a trick and she obliviously fell for it. Just like everyone else in her fucked up life, he betrayed her and through her to the wolves so to speak. He never cared and he never would.

This information willed her to run harder, faster and get back to her apartment before they got to her. She didn't care for the stares that followed her every movement; she only cared about the unstable ground in front of her.

Some ran and hide where they felt safe, others yelled profanities at the soldiers only to be struck down for them. It was all her fault. She was supposed to be helping these people and in truth she was only making things worse for the world.

She knew her plan would fail, she could feel it deep within her heart but that's exactly for what she planned. The tallest's offspring would be sent away before anything bad happened and that's exactly what she wanted. Revenge. They took her son's life then by god she was going to take theirs.

Tallest Red and Purple wouldn't even see it coming. With her being a wanted criminal she knew they'd send their kin away to random, safe locations only they knew about. Well she learned these places and her friend was already on his way to make things right.

"Stop in the name of the law!" A soldier shouted from inside the belly of a helicopter. A grin spread across her face as the bright white lights blinded her. They were so oblivious.

"Now!" She ordered and rocket launchers were fired into the tail of said helicopter. Screams and cries of pure terror filled the night sky as the flaming ball of metal and wire spun around swiftly out of the control of the pilot.

Fire lit up the darkened sky and caused her blood red eyes to glow with a new blood list no one had ever seen from such a harmless girl. You may ask what happened to her and if you wanted the truth then you'd be told the death of her family and friends around her drove her insane. If you wanted the lie then you'd be told that she was an insane bitch to being with just hiding behind her brother. That's the way she always did it and he protected her. Not for long anymore though. He was in war and she was in the war for her life. It was the dumbest time to launch an attack on the tallest, yet she chose the date carefully.

Pants escaped her lips as she rounded the last corner leading to her large apartment building. She knew this was it and the taste of blood in her mouth confirmed her fears of internal bleeding. She'd get it all over soon enough though. Just a few more minutes…

Ten light years away in space a ruby eyed man crept up slowly on the crib hidden deep within the cave housing the now dead rock people. A knife was being twirled around in his hands as blood dripped out of his leg where a single bullet hole lay. A hand was firmly placed against the aching wound to hopefully stop the bleeding but he didn't mind anyways. This is what he always wanted to do.

Much like his insane friend back on Irk he too lost everything because of the tallest. He was a joke to the empire, laughing stock of the Irken race. When word got to him about his new defective title he swore revenge on the ones who caused him to be driven into insanity.

Red's daughter was already finished off, only purples was left and he couldn't wait to see her little life slip away in his hands. As she died he planned on whispering in her antenna that he as actually helping her from the hell she was bred from. It would fill him with the sadistic pleasure he'd been aching for lately.

The thought of just kidnapping the child crossed his mind but once he thought of all the bloody outcomes that would come after he assumed it would just be easier to erase the child from history and get it over with.

His eyes wandered around the room until he saw the tiny green hands of the child in front of him. He stalked up to her crib silently not wanting to evoke the child causing a further delay, but this one was much different than the other little brat. She was silent as if to except her punishment of being born into this world from the wrong person.

He stood slowly towering over the small child's crib and held the knife up into the air. His mind told him to strike the child down and just get it over with but something deep in his heart told him to stop and just take a good look at her.

He shook the feeling away and raised the knife again right as the small child open her big eyes. It struck him in the heart to see her big blue eyes staring up into his innocently. However she stayed silent under his horrifying gaze and a small smile formed at the corners of her lips.

The knife stayed suspended in the air as he looked deep down into the child's small eyes. One of the child's hands reached up towards him when he caught a glimpse of the scars decorating her arm. Tallest purple must've saw her as a defect because she was the only Irken he had ever heard of having blue eyes. It was almost frightening.

He put the knife down slowly and hesitantly reached his hand down to hers. She gripped one of his fingers with her whole hand hardly being able to do even that. She lightly squeezed his finger making him smile, "You have quiet the grip." He whispered as she squeezed his finger again.

He dropped his knife completely as he stared at the baby that was now holding both her hands out to him demanding to be picked up. 'Kill her, just do it and get it over with!' he commanded himself but his muscles wouldn't listen to his order. All he wanted to do was pick the child up and tell her everything was going to be ok. But what would Holly say if he did just that. She'd probably call him a failure and kill the child herself before dumping him out in the streets cold and alone.

But none of that at the moment seemed to matter. The only thing that matter was this child, "Why can't I just kill you?" He sighed and covered his face with his hands. He felt two little hands on his wrist and when he removed his hands the small girl smiled at him.

"Daddy," She said and hugged his wrist as tight as she possibly could.

"Oh no I'm not your father," He said back to her only making her confused. But she refused to let go of his wrist. To her he felt safe and kind, if only she knew the truth behind that fact. Well at least he was better than her real father who hit her all the time and called her an accident, a mistake and worst of all a defective and no use to the empire.

The last time she saw her father he grabbed her wrist tightly, digging his claws into her skin making her cry and beg him to stop in her own way but he didn't. His claws dug deep into her skin and left two deep scratch marks that would never go away.

The man in front of her grudgingly pulled his wrist out of her grip and sighed. "I'm such a god damned softie." He scorned himself and looked at the small Irken in front of him. She raised her small box like antenna at him in surprise that he was once again paying attention to her. He raised his back and wiggled them making her giggle and do the same. He lightly laughed too and moved his antenna back down to flatten on his head again. She did the same and made a dramatic angry face, staring out into the wall before looking up at him with a heartwarming smile.

A small smile formed on the man's lips and he leaned his antenna down to the child and she did the same until she became unbalanced and fell forward onto her stomach. This made him softly laugh again and raise his antenna back up. She did the same again while trying to pick herself up and even though his brain screamed at him not to, he picked her up and held her up in the air.

He looked at the scars on her wrist and her antenna flattened down on her head when he reached over to gently grab her arm. She pulled away in fear and held her wrist while nervously looking at him. "I won't hurt you, sadly I can't anymore." He said slowly and showed her the scar over his left eye. She reached up and touched the scar on his face before frowning and looking at her own scars.

He reached over and inspected her scars to make sure they weren't fresh but sadly they were. A growl erupted from his throat scaring her and making her pull her wrist away again. Seeing his error he shut himself up and wiggled his antenna to tell her he wasn't out to hurt her. Even that was what he was sent there for.

He set her down again much to her distaste and ripped off a piece of his red and black striped bandanna. He gently grabbed her wrist and wrapped the torn piece of cloth around the room synching it up to make sure it was on snuggly to avoid infection.

"Oh I am so screwed for this." He mumbled to himself and picked the kid up again. "What am I even going to call you?" She pointed to a small toy car and he quirked and eye brow at her. "Car? I'm not going to call you car." He said and laughed gently. She shook her head and pointed to the car again then to a letter block with an I on it. "Cari?" He said kind of liking the ring of it. She wiggled her antenna and smiled making him smile back. "Ok, then I'll call you Cari. Come on before I get discovered taking you away." He sighed and lifted her up out of the crib.

He slowly walked out of the room passing the dead bodies of the rock people and covering Cari's eyes so she wouldn't see the horror in front of her. She didn't mind though, she knew she was safe now and that's all she ever wanted.

The man grabbed a communicator from his utility belt and sighed in annoyance, "Hello, Holly?" He said into it.

"What Zim I'm in the middle of something here?!" Holly yelled back.

"I know you're going to kill me for this but I didn't kill Tallest Purple's kid. I couldn't so umm I kind of took her…" He said awkwardly as his partner screamed 'what' at him through the communicator.

"I know, I know but something about her just wouldn't let me. I'm going to keep her and keep her away from Purple."

"You idiot! They'll kill you and hunt you down for the rest of your life! You rookie!" Holly screamed at him.

"I don't care, Purple hurt her and she seems to like me. I'm not leaving her to that mad man and that's final!" He yelled back.

"Zim you're such a dumb ass! Have fun dying on your own; I want nothing to do with this!" Holly yelled and hung up the communicator.

"Well so much for that." Zim mumbled and threw his communicator behind him.

"Daddy," Cari said and held her hands out to him again.

"I'm not your dad." He said back with a small smile. He moved his head down so she could hold onto his face and examine his scar. She put her tiny hand on the end of his scar and kissed his cheek.

"Daddy," She insisted and hugged his face before he slowly pulled her off.

"I can't win with you can I?" He sighed and looked down into her big blue orbs. She smiled at him in response making him sigh again. "Alright fine, but you need to stay hidden." He whispered to her and covered her up with his large bandanna.

She stayed still and quiet as Zim ran out of the rock peoples house and to his Voot Cruiser. Meanwhile back in the city Holly had reached her apartment and kicked down the door to her room.

Soldiers poured in after her and a tall red eyed Irken grabbed her when she was facing away from him, "You can't run from me." He said to her but she just smiled.

"I was just a distraction Red. While you obliviously chased me I sent an old friend to kill your spawn." Red's eyes widened as he stared at her.

"What, that's impossible. Who did you send!" Red yelled and grabbed her neck.

"You'll never know." She laughed evilly as he slapped her across the face.

"Who did you send!?"

"Goodbye sweetheart." She spat and bit down on something in her mouth. Red shook her as her mouth foamed and she fell limp in his grasp. Her red eyes dulled and rolled back in her head as her head lolled backwards. Cyanide...

"I-is she dead?" A soldier asked from behind his tallest. Red just stared at the dead Irken in front of him in utter horror and spun around to his guards.

"Go to the planet of the rock people and the planet of the Meekrobs NOW! Go check on my children!" He ordered viciously as he yelled at them.

"Yes Sir!" They all yelled in unison and saluted to him. They ran out of the room as a few others stayed to protect their tallest.

. . .

Zim flew over planet Irk staring down at its eerie pink glow as he held the small sleeping bundle in his arms. He felt her squirm and looked down to see her big blue eyes slowly flutter open and look up at him; she was a really pretty kid. "Daddy," She said and reached her hands out towards him. His eyes shined down at her as he gave her his wrist to hug with all her might.

"I'm going to protect you Cari, until the day I die." Zim said quietly as he looked at the scars on her wrist, "I promise."

She squeezed his wrist in response and looked out at the large planet in front of her. "Daddy," She said in a panic.

"Yes?" Zim asked curiously.

She shook her head at him and pointed out of the glass, "DADDY!" She said loudly and started shaking in fear. Zim looked out to see about twenty small Irken ships probably out searching for the kids to make sure they were ok. Zim's stomach tightened as his heart beat increased.

He saw Tallest purple standing in a large window at the front of the line looking mad as hell. Zim hid Cari again in his bandanna and grabbed the controls to avoid the large army of ships. He didn't go unnoticed but the tallest didn't give a damn about him because they didn't realize he was their daughter's killer, well Red's daughter anyways.

They just passed by Zim's small ship and towards the planet he just left with their daughter. In fear of being caught Zim made a U-turn and B lined for a different planet glancing back every few seconds to make sure he wasn't being followed.

Once he felt safe again he uncovered Cari and gently shook her awake. She looked up at him and with lightning quick reflexes, grabbed his finger. "Huh so you're fast to?" He teased and tickled the small figure sitting on his lap. She laughed loudly and squirmed making Zim smile down at her lovingly. He don't know what the hell this kid did to him but he loved her no matter who her father was. She was perfect.

Later that night, six months away from Irk a planet Zim knew well came into view. "This is your new home," He whispered into Cari's antenna. She was curled up asleep on his lap but her antenna twitched every time he'd say something to her. He thought it was cute so he'd talk to her every hour or so just to make sure she was still listening.

It was night time on Earth from what he could tell as he gently brought his Voot Cruiser down into the woods. It was a dense forest out in the middle of the country but Zim didn't want anyone finding out about his newly found responsibility or that he was here again. Not yet at least.

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**A/N: I thought this was a kind of cute chapter but that's just me. I don't know what you guys think so review and tell me. P.S More reviews=faster update =) I know I'm evil **

**And yes for those of you who know me in person such as Abbl2 and SexyPinkBeast, I do have a heart. A tiny one but it's a heart! haha I usually just don't show it unless I need to. I'm a bitch like that haha. And don't you dare say anything to anyone about this story or SexyPinkBeast YOU will lose your man hood to jade's machete and Abbl2 will lose...I don't know she'll lose something though! haha LOVE YOU GUYS and yes it's just one of those nights =))))**

**PLEASE REVIEW DAMMIT! haha lol**

**~Cari =)**


	2. The Truth About Your Past

**A/N: Ok so this chapter for me is awkward because it's all mushy and father daughter crap. I'm not usually one to be mushy and heart felt so you have been warned...It's gonna go by a little fast because again I'm not good with mushy stuff only the I'm going to kick your ass into next week stuff...sorry =) Sadly I'm good at writing romance most the time when I want to but this stuff is just like bleck find me a gun and a horse and I'm happy =)**

**Please review and I own nothing but my oc and the plot line thanks. REVIEW!**

**~Cari**

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Fifteen years later…

Narrator's POV

"DAD!" Cari yelled from inside her room.

"Yes Cari?" Zim called back from the bottom of the stairs. He was getting used to these sudden demands from his daughter lately.

"Can you come here for a second?" She called back. Zim sighed and looked over at the time. It was 5:30 PM and he'd need to start dinner soon.

"Sure," He called with a sigh and slowly headed up the stairs. He'd been working hard on keeping them both under the radar from the tallest. Even after all of these years he was still worried they'd come and take Cari away from him.

He walked up the stairs and down the hall way until he reached the sleek black door that symbolized her room, "I'm coming in now." He said just in case and slowly pushed the door open to see his upset looking daughter sitting on her big blue bed.

She looked up at him with sad eyes making him have a tiny panic attack, "What's wrong?" He asked and walked over to sit by her.

"Some kids just bullied me today and called me names," she said and leaned her head onto her dads shoulder. Rage bubbled up in Zim's stomach as he clenched his hands into fists tightly. These kids were gonna die.

"Who?" He demanded.

"Just some boys from school, they called me a slut and some other names just because I was wearing shorts." She responded noticing her dad's angry gestures. "I just felt bad after words."

Zim sighed heavily and wrapped his arm around his daughter, "Well you're not a slut and you never will be because I raised you to be better than that." He hugged her tightly as she buried her face in his sore shoulder.

"Then why would they call me that?"

"Because you're too hot for their own good and they know they can never get you so they're mad about it." He said and smiled at her to cheer her up. She smiled back and nudged him.

"I am not."

"Don't even get me started missy," He said back and hugged her again. "But I usually never win with you so I'm just going to shut up and nod my head."

"You always say that," She said and smiled up at him. He was her idol by a long shot and she loved him even though she knew he wasn't her real father.

"Well it's because it's true. Ever since you were just a little baby that I was taking home you had me wrapped around your finger. Damn you child…" He joked making her laugh.

"Oh I know, that's why my room was filled with stuffed animals." Cari said and hugged her dad back even tighter than he was hugging her making it hard for him to breathe but he didn't mind.

"And you still do…" He said and looked around at all the creepy stuffed animals staring back at him. A small shudder ran through his body when a creepy monkey animal looked like it was glaring at him.

"Hey there special to me." She argued back and grabbed onto a large stuffed dog that had a sleek black coat and green eyes.

"Why's that?"

"Because you got them for me." She said back making Zim smile.

"And I'd get you a hundred more in a heartbeat," He said gently and kissed her forehead. "Now tell me who these boys were so I can go beat the shit out of them."

"Dad," She complained and rolled her eyes at him.

"Hey, I can't help but be your father you know. If and when you get married I am going to test that boy's love by asking to shoot an apple of his head. If he declines he doesn't love you and I'll send him down to hell and if he accepts it and treats you right I'll shoot the apple off of his head nicely without hurting him but if I don't like him and he doesn't treat you right then I might accidentally miss and he'll never be able to have children." Zim said with an evil grin on his face. **(A/N: I actually agreed to let my dad do this for when I get married...you have been warned LOL. Well I actually kind of came up with it and told my dad and now he's determined to do it. And now I feel sorry for the poor sucker that's gonna marry me...)**

"Well you won't have to worry about that for a while, no one likes me." She complained again making Zim roll his eyes. At least she was over being teased…

"Uhu, so that boy umm Harley or whatever the hell his name is? He doesn't like you?" Zim said with a pointed look on his face, "Even though he's over here every day asking about you and demanding to see you?"

"Ok-,"

"That's what I thought," Zim said interrupting her. "I am always right."

"Ok dad, whatever you say…." She said dramatically.

"And remind me why you're not a famous actor yet?"

"Because I don't have to guts to get up on stage and act," She said back stubbornly.

"Ok, ok, even though you know you just randomly got up on stage one day in town and started dancing you definitely don't have the guts to do THAT!" He said and rolled his eyes at her again. "Now enough of this mopey stuff, you wanna go on a ride?"

"At 5:30 PM?" She asked while her jaw dropped.

"Why not? What are you chicken?" He taunted and rubbed her back gently.

"Oh was that a challenge I heard?" She growled back.

"Hell yeah it is." Zim scoffed and stood up. He reached his hand down to help Cari up and she willing took it.

"Fine, I'll accept that challenge,"

"Where do you wanna go?" He asked as they walked out of her room and down the stairs.

"Hmm, why don't we ride to the place where you landed the Voot cruiser the first day you brought me here?" Zim was surprised she even remembered that.

"Ummm, ok on one condition," He declared and stopped by the door to look at her deviously.

"What's that?" She asked back as she slipped on her black boots.

"I get to beat up the boys who teased you; no one teases my baby girl but ME!" **(A/N: Sadly Zim is kind of based of my own dad right now...it's so true...)**

"Fine, if I ever see them again."

"Oh Irk what did you do them?" He sighed and opened up the door to the warm air outside.

"I may have sent the dogs on them…." She confessed and smiled at her dad evilly.

"Now that is something only my child would do."

"You bet it is"

"Did Gir get out, he's getting pretty old you know I'm gonna have to keep him inside soon until I can get an upgrade for him."

"No he demanded Tacos before anything and when I didn't have any he just walked away into the house somewhere," She said and shrugged at him.

"Well…he is my minion. I'm not surprised…"

"So which ones are we riding?" Cari asked and put her hands on her hips.

"I'm gonna go with Champion and Midnight, they're the fittest right now." Zim said back after tapping his chin for a minute or so.

"Alright," She said and whistled loudly.

"Could you be ANY louder?" Zim said sarcastically and covered up his left antenna in pain.

"Yes," She said and walked down the steps as two large horses came cantering along the fence line.

"I'll take the old fat man if you take Champion." Zim said and walked over to pet Midnight's Black face. Champion had a Dapple grey goat with a silver mane and a white sock.

"Deal, I'm gonna ride bare back, what about you?" Cari asked and jumped up onto the horses back.

"You realize I am a man right?" Zim asked cringing at the thought of how painful the ride would be going bare back. **(A/N: I've made a couple of my guy friends ride my horse bare back. They still haven't forgiven me but it was my way of warning them he he he...Oh they're in for some shit with hanging around me...yet they tolerate me hmm dumb asses lol =))**

"Ok I'll give you points for that, I'll go get his saddle." She said and laughed as Zim smirked. He knew how to make his daughter happy, that's pretty much the only thing he knew how to do with this insane child.

"What do you think your old mans too weak to go get his own horses saddle?" Zim asked flabbergasted at his daughter.

"And why aren't you a famous actor?" Cari shot back at him.

"Because I'm too old that's why. Now stay here and I'll go get my own damn saddle." Zim said in a grumpy old man voice before smiling at her and walking off towards the large barn. He walked into the large tack room and grabbed a small western saddle that worked for Midnight's old man back. "Just us two old men…" Zim muttered to himself and walked back out to the horse with the saddle on his shoulder.

"Ok fatso come here." Zim said to the fat black horse standing in front of him. Midnight walked over to Zim and turned so it would be easier to put the saddle on. He slid the saddle onto the horse over the saddle blanket and synched it up until it was tight enough to stay on.

He threw Cari a pair of red reins and clipped his own leather reins onto the horses bridle. "So…what was I like when I was a kid?" Cari asked as Zim mounted up onto the horse.

"Well you were cute as hell, you still are and you always had to have my attention or the world would be ending in your eyes. I remember the first time you had a nightmare since I had you and you came running into my room like someone was going to kill you." He said and turned the horse to start off towards the trail head.

"What was the nightmare about?" She asked curiously making Zim tense up and lose a little color from his face, "Dad?"

"Well Hun, if you're really curious than…it was about your real father." He explained and looked away from her. He always wished she was his own flesh and blood since the day he took her but he knew that was never gonna happen. It didn't stop him from loving her though.

"Oh…well what did you do?" She asked and looked at the scars on her wrist as a reminder of how much she loathed the man that helped create her.

"Well you woke me up when you screamed and ran into my room so I was freaking out but after you told me about it I just held you in my arms and told you that he couldn't ever get you again. Then you demanded that I either stayed in your room until you fell back asleep or you were sleeping in my room. Either way I stayed up until you fell asleep and you ended up sleeping in my room anyways so again I lost that battle." He said and smiled at the memory.

"I remember that, I still really appreciate it." Cari said back and smiled over at him, "You are my father no matter what you think by the way."

"I never said I wasn't," He said back and looked over at her with perked up antenna.

"Yeah but you're body language said different."

"That's just because I wish you were my own flesh and blood and no matter what people say I'm just going to tell them that you are so they can kiss my ass." Zim said back and kicked his horse to make it walk a little faster.

"You bet they can." She said warmly and eyed the trail head suspiciously, "You sure we should be doing this."

"Would I have worked to put the saddle on this stubborn ass if I didn't think we should be doing this?" Zim asked back and motioned to the slow horse in front of him.

"Umm yeah probably, you're always working dad you need to take a break once and a while."

"I sleep, that's a break enough for me." He argued back.

"But we never have any time together anymore."

"I'm riding a horse with you right now am I not?"

"Besides right now." She said and rolled her eyes at her father's stubbornness, "You know you and that horse are so much alike."

"We are aren't we? Just us two old men having to deal with moody teenage daughters." Zim scoffed and patted Midnight's neck. The horse neighed in agreement and threw his head up in the air, "You see he agrees with me." **(A/N: Sadly this actually happened with my dad...FML)**

"I am not moody!" Zim gave her a look and she grinned at him knowing that was the biggest lie she ever told him.

"You've been moody since I brought you here."

"Why did you bring me here? I mean I'm just asking if you're comfortable with talking about it."

Zim sighed knowing this day was going to come, "Well babe when we first met I was sent by a friend to kill you." He started making Cari get chills.

"We we're trying to get revenge on the tallest for what they did to us in our youth. So while she made a distraction I went to kill you and your cousin. Now I'm not proud of this but I did kill your cousin but then I was getting ready to kill you and I…I just couldn't." He said angrily almost. They walked through the darkening woods slowly loving the feeling of the wild around them.

"You never cried like your cousin did and you saw me with the knife about to kill you. You just sat there like you understood why I was doing that and as soon as I saw your big blue eyes I knew I wasn't going to be able to kill you. You reached out to me and I gave you my finger and damn did you have a grip back then. Well anyways you started calling me daddy and I started falling in love with you. Weird as it sounds I know but I just felt like I needed to protect you."

"Dad…"

"I saw the scars your father left on you and I got pissed so I took you away and brought you here. I refused to let that mad man lay one more finger on you and it's all because you had blue eyes. What kind of father hurts his kid because she's different? It made me mad as hell because I happen to love your eyes." He concluded with a huff and realized he was clenching his hands a little too hard when a tiny bit of blood dripped off of his palm.

"I never realized that…" She said softly and looked at the scars on her wrist again.

"I'm sorry Cari, I should've told you earlier but I didn't want to lose you in case you would get mad at me."

"Did he give you that scar across your eye?" She asked interrupting her father's sentence. He looked shocked and traced a finger over his scar. He almost forgot he even had one.

"I don't think-,"

"Did he?" She demanded angrily.

"Cari…"

"Dad!"

"Yes he did, are you happy now? And your uncle gave me the nick in my antenna and all the god for saken scars on my chest." Zim said back angrily at her. He didn't like getting angry at his daughter but there were some things he didn't like to talk about.

"Then he is not my father." Cari said as venom dripped off of her voice.

"What?" Zim asked in confusion.

"If he hurt you, the man who raised me and treated me right, and hurt me because I looked different than he is NOT my father and I will refuse to call him that."

"Oh honey, don't say that. He's your birth father and no matter how much I hate him and you hate him he always will be your birth father. You don't have to call him it but I can't change it, trust me if I could I would."

"I wish you could dad, I really do." She grumbled and turned the horse around, "I'm hungry and I think we should go back before…I don't know let's just go back."

"Ok…" Zim said curious to why his daughter took his sob story so hard. He turned midnight around and slowly walked next to his daughter in silence. He had no idea what to say to her after that argument that he once again lost and he was pretty sure she didn't either.

They reached the house twenty minutes later and dismounted from the horses. Cari told Zim to go start dinner and she'd take care of the horses but when Zim came out ten minutes later the horses hadn't moved…

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**A/N: Yeah I don't really like this chapter but I hope you guys do =) Please review and tell me what you think of this sickening mushy heartfelt stuff and I'll continue on with the story out of my love of writing =). Told you this chapter would go by quickly. There's not a lot of descriptive stuff because I was too tired and lazy and just down right angry because my damn horse got out and its almost midnight and I had to chase him down. Ironically his name is midnight...damn that horse...**

**anyways please enjoy, review...you know the drill and I'll get back to y'all later =)))**

**~Cari**


	3. SHE'S BACK!

**A/N: Ok here's chapter two! This chapter is sweet and I actually like it, it's not too bad and it's not too good. It's right in between but I hope you guys enjoy =)**

**PLEASE REVIEW! DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING BUT MY OC'S AND THE PLOT LINE, NO FLAMES THANK YOU!**

**~Cari**

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Narrator's POV

"Cari!" Zim called as a thorn of worry worked into his heart. No answer came back to him so he grabbed a coat and walked down the steps, "Cari!" He tried again. Still no answer, "Son of a bitch…" He mumbled in a worry and raced inside to get his six shooter.

He ran out of the house slamming the door behind him and hurried over to the horses, "Cari!" He shouted in a panic. She usually answered to him no matter what. He untied Champion quickly and set her free in the pasture before hopping back onto midnight and taking off at a fast cantering pace while calling out to Cari. 'Oh god please don't tell me the tallest have found us again.' He thought as he searched the property line with no sign of her.

He started getting more and more anxious seeing as it was getting late and anything could've happened to her. It just wasn't like her to dump a responsibility like this. "Cari answer me!" He shouted into the darkening sky.

Again no answer came to him and he felt like he was going to have a hemorrhage. 'Please be ok, please be ok' Zim silently prayed as he led the horse along the west side of the property line. He heard something behind him and turned around on the horse only to see one of the dogs sniffing around. Her name was Tazz and she was Cari's main dog, they usually never separated from each other but Tazz also didn't leave the house much.

"Hey Tazz," Zim called and whistled so the old mutt would hear him. She looked up and trotted over to the side of the horse to look up at him with bit brown eyes. "Where is she girl, where's Cari?" He knew it was a long shot and one of the dumbest things he's ever tried but hey he had to try right?

Tazz started wagging her tail and barked at him before running off in the direction of the big river that marked the end of the property line towards the North. Zim kicked Midnight to hurry up and follow Tazz and the horse, sensing Zim's worry cantered after the speedy white bullet.

Zim neared the fence line when he heard a soft voice that he automatically knew was Cari's. "Come on Gir, you're ok. Get up, come on sweetie." She was saying. He looked around in the growing darkness and spotted Cari's white, pretty shirt.

"Cari!" I shouted in relief making her jump and spin around. I jumped off my horse faster than I have EVER moved in my life and wrapped my arms around her tightly rocking her back and forth for my own comfort. "You scared the shit out of me? What do you think you're doing out here?" Zim scorned at her but didn't let her go.

"Dad I can't breathe…" Cari gasped.

"Sorry…Sorry." He said and let her go while checking her over to make sure she wasn't hurt. "Now what the hell are you doing out here?"

"Dad…it's Gir…" She said softly knowing how much that stupid malfunctioning robot meant to me.

Zim's POV

"Where is he?" I demanded feeling even more worry work its way into my chest. She pointed over to a low hanging willow tree and I sprinted over there to see my little green dog lying on his side and hardly moving. "Gir…?" I said in shock and kneelt down next to the little bundle of fur.

"He won't answer to me," Cari said from the edge of the tree line.

"Just…Stay over there sweetie." I said and put my hand up while I put my other hand on Gir's chest. **(A/N:Sadly this happened with me and my dad too but it was with my favorite old beagle named Lauren, she was an awesome dog…)** Gir slightly stirred at looked up at me. Over the years he changed his disguise too. He was still a green and black dog, but he actually looked like a dog now with blue eyes and shaggy fur, both Cari and me thought he did it to fit in better with the other dogs.

"Hey bud, are you ok?" I asked gently and moved my hand up to his shoulder.

"I don't feel good Mastah, and I ran out of tacos…" Gir murmured back with glazed over eyes.

"I need to get you in for an upgrade…Well come on bud, I'll carry you home and try to get the parts to upgrade you're system ok? Then we'll have a taco feast."

"Really?" Gir said and wagged his tail slightly.

"Yes really, now come on oldie you're going to have to help me out here." I said with a small laugh and tried to lift him up but he flinched and yelped in pain. "What hurts Gir?"

"My tummy hurts…" Gir complained and lay back down.

"Did you hit your circuits again or is it something else?" I asked gently and took off my button up shirt so I could maybe wrap him up in this and carry him home that way.

"I don't know, some boys messed with me today…" He mumbled as I wrapped the shirt around him.

"What?" I asked in shock. If they were the same boys teasing Cari then there was gonna be hell to pay.

"The boys said they'd give me a taco if they got to see my insides so I let them!" He squealed quietly and limply hung in the shirt as I lifted him up. "They took something out of me."

"What was it that they took?" I asked protectively as I started thinking of ways to teach these boys a lesson. Torture, death, scaring the hell out of them and sending the dogs on them all ran through my head but I had other things to worry about right now.

"They took my power cord." He grumbled back as he looked over at Cari. His tail slightly wagged when he saw her and he tried to wave but his arms were failing because of his lack of power.

"Well then until I get you another power cord I guess I'm going to have to start actually charging you up huh?" I said happy that it wasn't something worse like his life line, and yes a robot has a life line. **(A/N: Scared ya didn't I? kjk poor Gir ='()**

"Yush!" Gir said happily, "More cords!" Now that sounded like my regular insane robot. I stood up with Gir in my arms and walked back over to Cari and Midnight.

"Are you alright?" I asked Cari protectively and searched her deep blue eyes for anything but worry.

"Yeah, is he ok?" She whispered back and held onto Gir's paw.

"Well those boys messed with him so we have to charge him manually now. Ha, you gave me quite the scare missy." I said and laughed lightly and walked over to midnight.

"Sorry dad but I saw Gir stumbling over here and I followed him right as he collapsed but I didn't know what to do." She said apologetically and gave me a scared look.

"Well stop worrying, he's going to be alright. I promise, he just needs to get some energy back into him." I calmly breathed out trying to calm down my racing heartbeat. I wrapped my arm around Cari's shoulder and held Gir with the other, "Now can you do something for me?"

"Yeah, anything."

"Thanks darling, take Midnight back and let him loose with Champion so he can be with his little girl again too. I'm going to walk back."

"Yeah sure, do you want me to walk with you?" She asked softly, still in shock about the whole Gir thing.

"Nah, I want you to get inside, get warm and eat something. I'll be back in like fifteen minutes or so." I said and shrugged.

"Alright daddy, hurry back." She said and kissed my cheek before mounting onto the horse and casting one last glance back at Gir and me.

"Go on." I said and waved my free hand to make her go. She nodded slowly and kicked Midnight to make him start cantering back to the house. "Well Gir, you and Cari have officially made me have a heart attack tonight." I whispered to him and he just smiled.

"YEAY!" He cheered.

"Not Yeay Gir, master would not be happy if he had a heart attack." I said with a small smirk. I thought about getting rid of Gir a long time ago but as I matured with age I decided that was the worst idea of my life. The defects have to stick together in the end.

I slowly walked back towards the house as Gir shut down completely needing to be charged back up. The house lights came into view about five minutes later and I took in a deep breath. "Well let's go get you charged up."

I walked into the garage and took the elevator down to the lab to put Gir up to the manmade charger I built for him a while back. The lab still looked the same as it did all those years ago when I was an invader with a few tweaks to the technology to make it my own and not completely Irken anymore.

After I completely hooked Gir up I took the elevator back up to the kitchen area and walked out to see Cari looking a little worse for wear at the table. "You ok babe?" I asked as I walked over next to her. It was around 9:30 now and I wasn't surprised to see her asleep. At the table was a different situation but she usually passed out around this time from a full day of work.

"Well you better have eaten before you passed out." I grumbled to myself. Her antenna twitched like old times and I brightly smiled, "There's my little girl again."

I debated on either waking her up or carrying her up to her room and decided the second choice was a better one. So I lifted her up bridal style and had to throw her up a little to get a good grip on her before walking off to the stair case.

She unconsciously rolled over in my arms and rested her head on my chest just like she used to do as a baby, "Where did the time go…" I whispered quietly once again making her antenna twitch. I sighed and pushed her door open with my back once I reached the top of the stair case.

I walked over to her bed and set her down gently in it before sliding my arms out from under her and stretching them. They were still pretty sore from so much typing on the computer in the last week or so. I reached down and grabbed her big black comforter with bright blue spots on it before covering her up and sitting on the edge of her bed for a second. With a long glance at all the pictures she had of us together up on the walls I reached over and rubbed her back getting ready to go get some dinner and hit the hay myself.

"Goodnight honey, I love you." I whispered and kissed her forehead. I got up onto my feet with a tiny bit of a struggle and walked over to her door. I turned and looked over my shoulder as I turned off her light and sighed.

"I love you too daddy." She whispered back making my antenna raise slightly. She rolled over under her covers and hugged the giant black stuffed dog I got her for her third birthday here on Earth.

Tazz zipped through my legs and jumped up into the bed with Cari before making herself comfortable with a couple of turns and lying down to sleep. I shut the door gently afterwards and walked down the hall way in silence.

The food was still hot when I reached the bottom of the stairs but I wasn't that hungry so I packed up the food and stuck it into the fridge. A picture blew around slightly as I shut the refrigerator and I looked at it with a warm smile.

It was a picture of when Cari was just a baby girl sitting on my shoulders looking at the first horse I got her. His name was Phantom and he was Midnight's father but he recently passed away from old age. He was an old duffer when we got him. I still remembered his big brown eyes and black coat and mane that he'd make a hobby out of getting himself dirty. Cari loved that horse to death and in the picture her little hand was on his muzzle and she was smiling brightly up at him while I held onto her little legs to make sure she didn't fall off my shoulders.

The phone rang interrupting my thoughts and I rushed over to get it so it wouldn't wake Cari up, "Hello?" I answered flatly.

"Hey Zim…" I recognized that voice…

"Wha? How did you know my number?" I asked her softly. I hadn't heard from her in years since we were cell mates going into the tallest's trail together. That's how I earned all the scars on me. **(A/N: If you guys are reading my other book, this is like the sequel to it before it's finished lol, Judgment of Life or Death then you know who Zim is talking to right now but I ain't telling ;) That's why the chapters called, SHE'S BACK!)**

"I just did some hacking and searching until I found you…So, I just wanted to know if I could see you soon?" She asked gently which was actually pretty odd for her.

"Yeah, why is everything alright with the spy stuff?" I asked slowly and leaned up against my black granite counters. They shined up at me reminding me that I needed to thank Cari for washing them this morning for me.

"Yeah, I just missed you I guess…ok you know what I'm just gonna come see you soon and if you ask me one more personal question I'll-,"

"Cut my manhood off, I know, I know. Come on over whenever you want to." I said making her laugh on the other end.

"First of all, don't interrupt me if you know what's good for you, secondly you know me too well and finally would tonight be too much to ask?" She asked and continued to laugh.

"Well probably not tonight, my daughter is sleeping and I don't want to scare her but how's about tomorrow?" I answered not even realizing what I just said to her.

"You have a daughter!?" She yelled, "I thought that I…"

"No, don't worry. She's not really mine but I'll explain when you come over tomorrow just in case were being spied on." I recovered quickly face palming at my stupidity.

"Ok, what time tomorrow?" She asked gently.

"Whenever, I'll be up at six so as long as it's after that I'm fine with it. Are you sure you're alright, you're not threatening me as much as you used to?" I asked her seriously.

"I just miss you ok, you know the drill all that dumb stuff that makes me all uncomfortable." She teased and sighed, "I just remembered the tallest trail today and I wanted to see you again. I mean we haven't seen each other for seventeen years."

"Really has it been that long? Jesus Christ, that is a long time. Well I guess I can believe it because my daughter's fifteen and I got her when she was just a smeet and I'd been working with Holly the year before that and with you the year before that. Jeez that seems like forever ago huh?" I said and smiled at the thought of seeing her again.

"Yeah, it's freaking insane. So I'm going to come over at six thirty tomorrow, be up because I am demanding to see you." She growled at me.

"Ok, ok. I'll be up, just calm down. I'll see you then ok?" I said with a loud laugh in remembrance of all the times she used to get mad at me when we were cell mates.

"Alright, bye love." She whispered.

"Bye to you too love." I said back with a small laugh and hung up.

Narrator's POV.

Back on the massive two very tall figures sat on a couch while listening to random calls made from invader to invader and Irken to Irken.

"Bye to you too love." Zim said back and hung up.

Red looked over at his brother in shock with his jaw dropped, "You don't think…?" He whispered.

"He just said he was working with Holly, he has her Red and he's going to pay for what he did!" Purple yelled angrily and stood up while glaring at the screen.

"I'll kill him myself if he's the one who killed my baby." Red growled and clenched the couches arm so hard it started ripping.

"You!" Purple shouted and pointed to a small pink eyed Irken named Zina. She looked over at him in fear and walked over to him feebly.

"Yes my tallest?"

"Call in Ben, we have a specific job for him," Purple demanded and grabbed Zina by the neck, "And do it now!"

"Y-yes S-sir!" She said and saluted as he dropped her onto the floor and paced back and forth.

Suddenly the screen in front of them flashed and an Irken with blood red eyes looked at his tallest curiously, "Yes my tallest?" He asked gruffly. He had scars running across his face and a black eye patch over his right eye no thanks to that bastard Zim.

"We have a very specific job for you." Purple hissed angrily as a vein pulsed out of his neck.

"What is it?" Ben asked suddenly interested. His blood red eyes glinted with blood lust as he stared at his tallest with an evil grin.

"It's Zim! He has kidnapped MY daughter and killed Red's! You are to bring him back here as soon as you can so I can murder him!" Purple yelled furiously. "I'm gonna make him hurt." He whispered to himself as Ben's smiled grew.

"Do you know if she's with him?" Ben asked sadistically.

"Who?" Red asked.

"You know who," He said and indicated to the eye patch.

"She's visiting him tomorrow and probably staying for a while. How soon can you get to Earth?"

"Well since I'm about fifteen light years away…I can get there in a year and a half and maybe less if I work on my Voot Cruiser and increase its speed." Ben said back after tapping his chin and cracking his knuckles sickly.

"It better be less!" Purple yelled at him.

"Consider. It. Done." He growled with a bloodthirsty smirk on his face. The call ended second later as the two tallest's continued to fume over what happened fifteen years ago.

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**A/N: =OOOOOOOO, the problem has been induced early for a reason so no flames! Also for those of you reading Judgment of life or death you know who Ben is too and what his story is so I don't have to re explain it =)! I also like how cute I made Zim and Cari (Sighs) I'm a genius haha KJK FAR FROM IT LOLOLOL. **

**Please review! I'm begging you! lol **

**~Cari**


	4. I Missed You

**A/N: Ok probably one of the most awkward chapters I have ever written but Zim is in love with this chick so you know...no lemons though don't worry. It's just awkward in my mind lol. You can probably guess I'm not all that comfortable with love and intimacy and crap. I'm happy with a gun and a horse like I said before =DD. Well please enjoy and review. I'm exhausted so I should go to bed myself but I'm up because of disappointment. I didn't score the damn job I wanted that I worked so hard for because they asked right at the end, hey how old are you? I told them and one guy was like come back in a year and will talk this over again. I was like silently thinking of ways to murder him hahaha.**

**Anyways YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! So here's chapter 3 and I hope you enjoy. Please review and I am out for the night! Thanks guys=) I OWN NOTHING BUT MY OC'S AND THE PLOT LINE, NO FLAMES THANK YOU!**

**~Cari**

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Chapter three

Zim's POV

I woke up with a start the next morning and rolled over in my bed to check the time. 6:00 AM, Perfect. She'd be coming over soon so I decided to get my lazy ass out of bed and get dressed. Not that she'd care.

I stretched with tired eyes and stood up to walk over to my brown, wooden dresser. I pulled out a white button up shirt and dark blue jeans with the normal boots on under them before stretching again and walking out of my room.

I walked down the hall way a little bit and peeked inside Cari's door to see that she was still sleeping peacefully. I smiled at her and slowly shut the door worried about how she'd take the news. As I was shutting the door Tazz got up and sprinted through my legs probably having to pee.

Tazz scratched at the door down stairs making me sigh and roll my eyes, "If only you could open the door yourself you lazy mutt." I opened the door for her to run out and pee then explore the property and check the boundaries like she usually would.

I closed the door again after watching her sniff around for a moment from my white painted porch. That's when I remembered that I should probably go check on Gir. I walked back into the house and gently shut the door after myself until I reached the elevator and commanded the computer to take me to Gir. With a sigh it did so and dropped me off on the floor Gir was charging at.

I checked his battery level through the energy pump I made him and saw he could probably use another day or so of charging so I left him with a pat on the head and asked the computer to take me back upstairs.

"Sir, someone is approaching the door." The computer warned me as it dropped me off in the kitchen and disguised itself to look like the corner of the wall.

"Thank you computer, it's probably her." I said and heard the soft knock at the door. "Here we go," I said and took in a deep breath. I don't know why but I was really nervous to see her again. But I kept my cool and walked over to the door and opened it to see Iris standing there and smiling.

"Zim!" She shouted and jumped into my arms.

"Hey babe, why are you so happy?" I asked with a laugh from the floor.

"Are you kidding me right now?" She asked with a pointed look on her face, "You have a nice place here, does your daughter help keep it up?" She seemed more talkative than usual too.

"Yeah, she's upstairs asleep." I said as Iris sat on my chest and smiled down at me like the happiest person in the world.

"I want to meet her."

"And you will, but not right now she's asleep." I said and wrapped my arms around her waist, "Besides this is the time for you and me." She smiled at me and winked.

"You bet big boy. So I'm guessing you are her are pretty close am I right?" She asked and put her hands on either side of me.

"Yes, she's my pride and joy…well half of it." I said with a soft smile, "I missed you."

"I missed you too," She said and smiled back.

"So are you going to get off of me or sit on me all day?" I asked making her laugh.

"Well I can do more than sit on you all day but since you have a daughter here, I don't think we should scar her for life." She whispered and traced her claws along my most sensitive antenna. I blushed deeply and slightly groaned until she stopped sparing me the embarrassment.

"And I know you could, but we need to catch up on things." I said and sat up to hug her tightly.

"Hell yes we do, like when did you get a daughter and how?" She growled at me and I just smiled.

"We can catch up on that in a few minutes; I want to catch up on something else right now." I said and gave her my best 'I love you' face. She smiled at me and rolled her eyes.

"That's all you ever want to do,"

"Not true!" I protested and brought her closer to me, "But it is all I want to do right now." I said gently and pressed my lips against hers. She kissed me back and wrapped her arms around my shoulders as I wrapped mine around her hips. I missed her so much…

I flipped over and kissed her while she lay under me, "I love you," I whispered and kissed her again. I felt her smile form on my lips as I kissed her more hungrily.

"I love you too zimmy but you do realize we are lying on the floor in front of your door." She said and smirked at me.

"Do you honestly think I care?" I asked and perked an eye brow at me.

"No but I do, so unless you want to lose your man hood then get off of me." She growled and kissed my neck.

"You wouldn't want me to lose that." I taunted and got off of her.

"Hmm your right, well I'll figure something out to threaten you with." She teased as I offered her a hand. She willingly took it and I helped her up only to have her kiss me again. "Like If you don't do what I say I won't kiss you. Yeah I like that one."

"I don't," I grumbled and kissed her again. "So I see you're actually talking, what happened there?"

"I had to so I could stay in the spy business and I just decided after falling in love with the man of my dreams that I liked my voice." She hinted and wrapped her arms around my neck.

"You'd be surprised how much more threatening I've become since I fell in love with the women of my dreams." I hinted back and lifted her up onto my hips, "Now come on, I'm tired of standing in front of the door."

She made no complaints as I kicked the door shut behind me and kissed her again. We stumbled backwards onto the couch and continued to make out for a while. "Hmm, I'm going to have to get to know you again tonight aren't I?" I asked and kissed her neck sweetly.

"Yes, yes you are." She sighed back and rested her head on my shoulder.

"So do you want to tell me the real reason why you're here?" I asked and rubbed her back gently.

"What are you talking about, I came to see you and your daughter," She protested.

"Iris we both know that's a lie. You've been acting way to happy and talkative to be Iris so what's going on? You didn't just come here to see me; if that's what you wanted you would've made me come see you."

"Dammit you know me way too well." She mumbled and sat up slowly, "Well I did want to see you dumb ass but I also quit being a spy. I didn't like it anymore and I missed you and I just want to be with you again."

"I think that is the longest sentence I have EVER heard you say." I said and nuzzled her face. "Of course you can be here with me I just have to slowly introduce you to my daughter. I don't know how she'll react to having another woman in the house."

"Yeah so do you want to tell me about that now?" She said and gave me a serious look, "You haven't been sleeping with someone behind my back have you?"

"Uh no," I said back seriously, "You're the only one. Anyways fifteen years ago I was working with Holly to get revenge on the tallest and she sent me to kill the tallest's children. I killed Red's but when I got to purples I just couldn't make myself kill her. She was just the perfect little kid with big blue eyes that I'd only ever seen in one other person and that's you. Well anyways she was silent when I was about to kill her and when I couldn't she started reaching up to me and calling me daddy and stuff. Tallest purple had been abusing her so she has scars on her wrists so DON'T point them out and it made me really mad when I saw them. So I took her away and brought her here to earth to be my kid."

Her eyes were widened in shock and horror as I finished and she just stared at me for a second, "Zim why did you listen to Holly! If the tallest find out about this…then…then I'd lose you and your daughter!" Iris exclaimed and grabbed the collar of my shirt.

"They'll never find out. I've been really careful to make sure it stays that way too." I whispered gently and grabbed her hands, "Iris you have to know that this girl means everything to me besides you. I've raised her as one of my own for fifteen years of my life and I love her very much. If I lost her I'd be crushed just like I was when we separated to live our own lives." I pointed out slowly making her face drop.

"That's perfectly fine with me Zim. You can't break a bond between a parent and a child even if it's not really your child. I'm just very worried about this. But I want you to know I'm here with you through it all and I will leave if you want me to, but I love you and it's always going to be that way." She responded and hugged my chest tightly.

"I love you too Iris and I'd never ask you to leave unless I had to. I don't know how Cari is going to react to this though so I'm a little concerned."

"You don't think she's going to like me do you?" Iris sighed sadly.

"It's not that it's just that she's had all my attention all her life and now she's going to have to share it with you. She's really a very sweet and pretty kid but she's never had to share my attention with anyone before. I think it just may be something hard she's going to have to take on so we have to be careful ok?"

"Ok, ok. You're just making me more eager to meet her you idiot. Does she have an attitude like me?"

"Oh she has her own personality that's for sure but she's not as violent as you, unless she needs to be. I trained her life we were trained in the trial since she was a kid so she knows self-defense and stuff but she gets picked on a lot by other kids." I explained with a smile.

"Who? I'll kill them," She said and cracked her knuckles.

"Ok if your serious about that then I can't tell you who and I don't even know yet so I couldn't tell you if I wanted to. Cari isn't exactly comfortable talking about it."

"I'm always serious about who I kill. So that's her name huh? Cari? I like it, did you name her?" Iris asked and smiled brightly. I could tell she was really excited to meet her.

"Well she named herself the night I took her. She pointed to a car and then the letter I so I assumed that's what she wanted to be called. She's never complained so I guess I made the right choice." I shrugged.

"Ok you are seriously attached to this girl aren't you? Let me guess she has you bound tighter than a snake around it's pray with the finger thing doesn't she?"

"Can you blame me?" She rolled her eyes, "I got attached to two girls faster than hell and I think you have me wrapped too Iris."

"I do not!" She said dramatically and put a hand on her chest to add affect.

"Uhu," I said and rolled my eyes, "You do, even if you don't believe it."

"Oh no, I believe it. I just like to tease you about it. So tell me about her." Iris said and brightly grinned at me.

"Well she's really pretty no matter what she says; she's sensitive to certain things like her real father and her looks and what she's called by other people."

"Poor thing, so when those kids teased her?" I nodded in response.

"She took it like a bus hit her." I sighed sadly, "I hate seeing my little girl in pain…"

"I can imagine, so what else."

"Hmm well, she's all about country but loves music, she's a really good actor but too shy to get up on stage even though she is a really confident person…and she loves, loves, LOVES horses. We have like ten that you've probably already seen and she takes care of them all on her own. I help of course but she's taken all the responsibility that comes with them." I said and smiled about getting to brag about my baby girl.

"Impressive, so she's reliable?"

"Extremely. She lives to make me proud but she also loves to annoy me and I love to make her laugh just like I love making you laugh even though you loath it." I said and wandered my hands up her shirt to tickle her.

"Hey remember, heart stabilizer." She said and gasped when I started tickling her, "Hey!"

"HAHA! I knew you were still ticklish! I am truly amazing." I teased and continued to tickle her as she laughed and squirmed around on the couch.

"Zim! Stop or I am going to cut off your man hood!" She said in between laughs. I stopped for a second and leaned over her.

"No you wouldn't," I whispered and tickled her again. She started laughing again and struggling.

"T-then I'll do something worse that I can't think of right now!" She laughed loudly.

"How do you threaten women then?" I asked curiously and slowed the tickling down to just running my claws along her tough stomach and curiously look at her.

"You don't want to know." She muttered and smiled up at me.

"Yes I do." I said stubbornly.

"I tell them I'm going to rip out there antenna, shove them down their screaming wind pipes and break their necks right then and there." She explained making me shudder.

"Ok maybe I didn't want to know…"

"I told you but do you listen to me? No, of course not." She said and crossed her arms.

"I usually don't listen to you because I'm thinking about other things I could do with you." I said seductively and drug my claws gently down her stomach.

"No scaring the child or I would be mauling you right now." She said with a dazed look in her eyes.

"That's very true; we'll go out on our own time and catch up on those things." I whispered and crawled in between her legs, "You're beautiful you know that?"

"No, it's not like you've told me that over nine million times." Iris scoffed back.

"I only say it because it's true…." I said and smiled down at her.

"Ok now you're just sucking up."

"Maybe I am and maybe I'm not, you'll never know." I teased and gently stroked her antenna, "You have antenna like Cari's too. That's kind of cool."

"I'm excited to meet her. When does she usually get up?" She whispered with a small purr of pleasure.

"It depends on how well of a sleep she got the night before so I don't know about today. You'll meet her though. I think you'll like her too." I whispered back and looked into her pretty blue eyes happily.

"I hope she likes me back, I've been busting my ass these last few months trying to locate you and the whole daughter things really did surprise me but now it's exciting." She muttered and locked her arms around my neck.

"I'm glad you did. I've been thinking about you lately, wondering how you were doing and if you still thought about me or met someone else." I said and she rolled her eyes.

"As if…I never opened up to anyone until you took pity on me. I'm really glad I didn't kill you."

"Well I can't say I'm too disappointed myself, I have a sexy girlfriend and the best kid I could ask for. I think I'm doing pretty well for myself." I said and laughed. "Even though I was mad that I had to be stuck in a cell with you at first I'm sure as hell glad I was now."

"I am too," She said and nuzzled my face, "Even though you were a pain in my ass."

"Oh I remember, you used to threaten my man hood all the freaking time. I still remember when Eve tried to get me excited and-,"

"God I hated that little bitch, I'm so glad I killed her. Besides she was trying to take what was rightfully mine."

"Exactly but then I was all over you and she was so pissed I wasn't paying attention to her." I laughed and gave her a toothy grin, "I guess I'm just that hot."

"That's rich, but I must say I was interested the first second I saw you."

"You kissed me then kicked me in the groin and tried to kill me if Al hadn't saved me…" I said with an 'are you kidding me' voice.

"Oh yes I remember." She laughed loudly and traced my antenna again, "I love your antenna."

"I love you," I said back making her roll her eyes.

"You are such a sap but you know what…I love you too and I'm proud to say it." I smiled at her again.

"I am too." I whispered and kissed her gently. She kissed me back with more force so I sat up with her in my arms and bit her lip so she'd open her mouth for me. She didn't because she already knew every move I had in me but she did bite my lip making me open my mouth for her. 'Well that's a change if I ever saw one.' I thought and closed my eyes as I pulled her closer to myself.

I ran my hands up her shirt so I could trace her back making her smile again. She drove me crazy by twirling my antenna in between two of her claws so I'd kiss her with more force which is probably all she really cared about right now…

"DAD!" Someone screamed at the top of their lungs. I broke away from Iris in surprise and turned around to see Cari in complete shock at the top of the stairs.

"C-Cari…" I said with wide eyes and a heavily blushing face. 'So much for letting her in on it slowly…' I thought in horror.

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**A/N: AWKWARD! hahaha well in truth I was listening to country music which is usually all about this stuff so I was like eh what the hell. Anyways hope you enjoyed keep reading and I'll keep writing and review. You know the drill lol**

**THANK YOOOOUUUU  
~CARI, I am amazing lol**


	5. Please No

**A/N: Well here's chapter four! Please enjoy and review now WARNING, this chapter is a throat tightener at the end. So if my viewers have a hard time with blood and stuff then don't read the last part. PLEASE REVIEW! Anyways I like this chapter but it is kind of weird at the end so yeah...just read and find out I guess =)))**

**~Cari**

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"Who is this…" Cari asked and stood close to one of the poles of the stair case. She was in black latex shorts and a blue tank top. I was worried about the fact that her antennas were pressed flat against her head and she did not look happy that there was another woman in the house hold. It was worse that she caught us making out when I wanted to bring in on it slowly.

I grabbed a pillow and set it on my lap and looked over at Iris nervously, **(A/N: Ok we all know why he did that right because I'm not explaining it)** "Well Cari, this is Iris she's my girlfriend." Iris punched me in the arm and gave me a stern look for just blurting it out. Cari looked rather taken back and shocked at this new discovery and stayed silent. You could feel the tension in the air and the awkwardness that seemed to be choking all of us to death.

"Ok Zim explained that horribly. Cari your dad and I were cell mates in the tallest trials as I'm sure he's told you. We slowly fell in love and looked out for each other through it all and we were in love. Well at the very end Zim was determined to get revenge on the tallest and I was determined to work harder to keep my stealth up and keep myself under the radar from your father's best friend's killer-,"

"Iris I don't think you should talk about," I interrupted not wanting to talk about Harley at the moment, it was too sad. It was even worse that the boy here named Harley liked my daughter so I got to be remind of my friends death over and over and over again every day…

"You haven't told her have you?" Iris asked with a sigh.

"I never wanted her to know," I whispered back through clenched teeth.

"Anyways Cari, your father and I decided it was best to live the lives we wanted to separately then hook back up and be together again. I'm Iris like Zim said and if you can believe it without Zim's old team mate Al none of us would be here today. I would've killed Zim the night I met him-,"

"Ok that's enough Iris!" I warned seeing Cari's distress. She look flustered, confused, betrayed but she didn't look angry or like she didn't like Iris. It was more of 'I have no idea who the hell you are and you're making out with my dad. I don't trust you and I want to know why you're here.'

"Zim if she is going to accept me she has to know who I am and what I've done and what I do. You can't keep the past a secret from her forever Zim…I know you're better than that." Iris said reminding me of how I squeezed her past out of her and that's when I started appreciating her more.

"She doesn't need to know you tried to kill me," I growled and flattened my antenna a little to warn her I meant it.

"Well if Al hadn't saved your father from me than none of us would be here. I would've died in the tallest trials and you never would've been found by Zim." She concluded after shooting me a harsh look that chilled me all the way down to the bone. She was still scary as hell but I loved her...

"Great explanation…" I muttered making her kick me in the shin. Cari frowned when she did that and my eyes slightly widened. She didn't like that Iris was 'hurting' me. "Cari I know I never told you about Iris but-."

"I'm gonna go work with the horses." She interrupted and hurried down the stairs making sure to stay as far away from us as possibly. "Cari, no." I said back making her antenna flatten.

"No I'm gonna go. I'll just leave you two alone." She said nervously and grabbed a leather coat before hurrying out of the house and slamming the door after herself.

"Cari! Cari come back here dammit!" I yelled after her but she never came back. With a sigh of defeat I collapsed back down onto the couch and put my face in my hands. "Well…so much for that." I groaned and made a gun shape with my hands to support my face while leaning my elbows onto my knees.

"Oh Zim I'm sorry…Maybe I should just leave." Iris said and wrapped her arms around my shoulders. She put her head on my right shoulder letting me lean my head up against hers.

"Please don't, I lost you for seventeen years and I finally have you back. I'm not going to ask you to leave just because my daughter feels betrayed." I sighed and hooked an arm around her waist.

"How would you know how she feels? She looked freaked out the whole time." She pointed out and hooked her box shaped antenna onto my scythe ones.

"Call it a bond but I know how she feels about things most of the time. That's why I try and avoid everything she doesn't like and push towards what makes her happy."

"What if it made her happy for me to leave?"

"I don't know Iris, I really don't. She wants me to be happy too right? Well I'm happy with you and her together but if she's not I don't know what the hell I'm going do. I've always put her first before myself which I know sounds insane for me but I really love her. She's my daughter what else would I do." I said back and lowered my antenna slightly so hers would slide down to the nick in that one. That's where we always put our antenna if we put them together.

"We'll figure it out…Maybe I should go talk to her?" She offered softly, "I want whatever's best for her too and what's best for you. Whatever makes you happy."

"I want you to be happy too you know. I'm happy with you like I said before but I love her almost more than anything." I sighed and turned my face so I could nuzzle her neck. She turned her face towards me with a worried look in her eyes and moved closer to me. "I'll figure it out somehow." I whispered and kissed her gently, "I promise."

"You can't promise everything Zim," She sighed and leaned her head on my shoulder again.

"Maybe not but I can promise that one way or the other this is all going to work out and I am going to have both of my girls in the end."

Narrator's POV.

Little did Iris and Zim know that Cari was actually listening to them from a window sill that was covered in Ivy so you could hardly see out of the window anymore.

"Maybe I should go talk to her," She heard Zim say softly to Iris.

"If you think it's a good idea. I think she might just want some time alone right now to try and understand what's happening. She's never had to deal with this kind of situation before so it's something that is unfamiliar and scary in her mind." Iris said back with a sigh. She seemed to be distressed too but wouldn't ever tell Zim she was. That was beyond her pride level.

"I have seriously never heard you talk so much. I'm not complaining though, I love your voice." Zim cooed making Iris laugh softly.

"You used to go crazy whenever I stopped talking to you and you still wanted to talk. Oh those were the days…why can't we go back to those times? I miss them…"

"Because I have a daughter now and I wouldn't trade her for this world or any other world out there. Iris we can't go back now. Cari has to accept you even if it takes some time and as soon as that happens we can be the most lovey dovey whatever the hell you want to be. But it's not going to happen until I figure the Cari situation." Zim informed her making Cari feel worse about herself. Why couldn't her dad just have given her back to tallest Purple then he could be with the girl he really loved.

"I know Zim, I know…" Iris sighed back and untangled her antenna from his. He looked over at her in confusion of why she did that but she didn't make eye contact with him.

"Don't worry ok." Zim whispered and pulled her up into his lap.

"Fine…" Iris grumbled and looked at her hands, one of which Zim was holding on to.

"Thank you, now I should probably go get her and apologize for yelling at her." Zim said and kissed her cheek quickly.

"What am I supposed to do in that time?" Iris asked in a defeated tone.

"I'll take you up to my room so you can get some rest and once I have figured all of this out we can go have our time together."

"How'd you know I was tired?" Iris said grumpily.

"Are you kidding me, you get moody when you're tired and I know too well. Like the fact that I know you are going to tell me you do not get moody when you're tired."

"I do not get moody when I'm tired," Iris said as she ignored Zim.

"Told you," He said and picked her up bridal style. "Now come on before I get tempted to kiss you again."

"You always are," Iris scoffed and crossed her arms as Zim walked her up to his room.

"No usually only when I get excited that you're around." Zim pointed out and she shrugged.

"That's actually pretty true. Do you think your daughter noticed you covering yourself up with the pillow or does she even know what was happening there?"

"She knows exactly what happens with that kind of thing, but I tried to keep it covered up she wouldn't be scarred for life again. I hope to god she didn't notice." Zim said back with a worried smile. Iris laughed and kissed him as he picked his door open to set her down.

"Well you better hope you weren't lifting the pillow for god's sakes. You were happier than I've ever seen you. Ok that's a lie but you were happy." She teased making him blush.

"Oh be quiet I was happy to see you again. I mean come on it's been seventeen years since I've had any sexual interaction with a woman. I can't even get one to touch me except you!" He protested and blushed harder.

"Well that's a problem now isn't it? You're losing your touch Zimmy. You used to be quiet the ladies' man if I remember right." Iris taunted and got under the covers of the bed.

"Are you kidding me they didn't like me they liked my package and that's all they wanted. You're the first to actually give a damn about me." He said making her laugh again. "Now get some rest I need to go find my daughter."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just hurry back."

"If I know my daughter I'll be a while." He sighed and rolled his eyes. "I love you and don't forget it. I'll be back as soon as I can."

"I love you too and don't worry I won't. I'm really sorry Zim." Iris said back and smiled at him weakly.

"Don't be, I knew I'd have to do this one day or another…I shouldn't have put it off for so long." He scoffed and leaned down to kiss her before walking out of the room and smiling at her. She smiled back at him and shoved her face into one of the pillows trying to hold back the fact of how mad this whole situation made her. This was all tallest Purples fault…

Zim's POV.

I walked back down the stairs and straightened out my shirt and stuff before walking over to the door and opening it. The sun was getting pretty high in the sky now and the heat was beating down on the ground like hell on earth. Cari didn't like heat very much and she hated cold weather but she liked right in between and today was not one of those days.

"Cari!" I called and slowly walked down the steps of the porch. I didn't get an answer so I sighed again; this was going to be a long day…

Maybe she'd be with Midnight and Champion, that's who she usually hung around with so it was an educated guess. I whistled loudly and walked to the edge of the fence line to see the two large horses racing towards me. Midnight nipped his daughters mane and tossed his head into the sky before picking up the pace in a form of challenge. Champion ran faster and tossed her head in the air with her dad. I must admit that it actually stabbed my heart to see that little display of affection between them.

Midnight trotted up to me and nipped my shoulder making me jump back a little bit, "Hey what was that for?" I asked and held onto my now bruised shoulder. Midnight flung his head into the air as his own daughter gave him her own kind of confused look. The horse made an annoyed noise with his nose at me and I quirked an eye brow at him, "What are you trying to tell me something you old boy. What are you trying to tell me?"

She horse spun around in a circle and reared up before neighing at me again and slamming his hooves onto the ground. "Oh yes because I know what that means," I scoffed and rolled my eyes. "Ok you know what just show me." Of course Midnight understood this and turned to start galloping off, "Hey I can't run that fast! Slow down I'm old!" I yelled after him as I scrambled over the wooden fence line.

Once I finally got over the fence I started running off towards the horse that was leaving me in the dust. Champion trotted next to me and I just rolled my eyes again, "Show off."

I rushed as fast as I could after the horses feeling tired already but I kept pushing myself to move faster. "Cari!" I called out through the heat of the day. It was making it hard to do anything with the damned heat pounding down on me.

"Let me go!" I heard someone snap loudly and a few other voices laughed. That's when panic set in and I started sprinting over to the voices. I heard Midnight neighing angrily and running around in circles over by where the river started.

I ran over to the top of the hill and looked down to see three boys holding Cari down and trying to push her into the water. I knew that would kill her and so did she so pissed off dad bear came out as I jumped down the hill.

One of the boys looked up right as I punched him in the side of the jaw making him yell in pain and fall onto his ass. The other boys looked up in horror, "Dad?" Cari yelled as the biggest boy jumped at me.

"Son you so do NOT want to do that," I said and cracked my knuckles at him.

"What are you going to do about it? OLD MAN!" They taunted making me snap.

"Only I can call myself old man you stupid kid, and now you're going to see why," I said and grinned evilly at them. The biggest boy jumped at me again and I rolled onto my back and kicked him high into the air with a move Iris taught me a long time ago. He flew backwards and landed in the river only to resurface a few seconds later and gasp for air.

"Now you're going to get it!" The boy I punched said as he finally stood back up. He ran at me like an idiot and I just flung my arm out and gripped his neck angrily.

I lifted him up in the air by his neck with one arm as he gasped and pawed at my hand, "Don't. Mess. With. My. Daughter!" I snarled at him as he finally passed out.

The third one actually had a gun if you can believe it and he pointed it at me. "No!" Cari screamed and sprang up to tackle the kid. She grabbed the gun and pointed into the air as he tried to keep a grip on it.

I shook off the shock I had from seeing a 15 year old with a gun, Jesus what is this world coming to? I ran forward to get Cari away from him when he got the gun back aimed and shot.

I stopped dead in tracks as I watched my daughter, the kid I've raised since birth; fall to the ground in a heap on front of me. The boys looked horrified at what their comrade just did and they ran off as I stood there looking at my daughter in terror. "Cari…" I said as the memories of Harley getting shot ran through my head.

His grey eyes dulling as he collapsed right in front of Zina. Zina screaming at him not to leave her and to get up and wake up... I felt my body go numb as I collapsed onto my knees and stared at her. Blood had started pooling around her body and I felt tears forming in my eyes, "Cari…sweetie?"

"Cari answer me! Please answer me!" I wailed and grabbed her heavy body gently. I could see where the bullet went in but I couldn't find the exit wound which only terrified me more. They were at such a close range how couldn't it have gone through her completely.

I picked her up and set her in my lap to see her glazed over eyes. She was still bleeding from what I could see and my worst nightmare made officially made itself real. "Please no, oh god please no. Not her anyone but her…Cari…" Tears were streaming down my face now as I put pressure on the bullet wound. It was in her chest and if it hit her heart or anything near it then she was screwed. Irkens hearts were on the right sides of our bodies instead of our left causing us to be much more vulnerable when it came to actual bullets and at such a close range.

"I'm sorry…" I cried silently. I rocked her back and forth slowly feeling my heart shatter into millions and millions of tiny pieces as I hugged her close to my shaking figure, "I'm so sorry, this is my fault. I shouldn't have let you go. I should've just hurried after to even if you'd be mad at me. I'm so sorry." I whispered into her antenna.

I clenched my eyes shut as tears flowed out of them and felt like I was going to die right there. I'd never had a kid of my own and lost them until now. I never knew how much more pain it'd give me then the tallest trial did.

I was still in denial though, "She's going to be ok, she'll be ok," I told myself until I looked down at her again. She was getting cold so I ripped my shirt off and wrapped her up in it like when she was a baby.

"Zim, Zim where are you!" I heard Iris call.

"Iris help! It's Cari!" I yelled back as I sucked in deep breaths and tried not to let my voice crack but it was getting pretty hard as my throat tightened up.

"What, what happened?" She yelled as she appeared at the top of the hill. I looked up at her as I cried and her eyes widened to the point of where I thought they were going to pop like a balloon. I never cried in front of anyone. I refused to ever show the emotion of sadness through tears so Iris had never seen me cry before. Not even when Harley died because I just waited until I was drug off to the prepping room to do that.

"Get help!" I ordered as I stood up with Cari in my arms. I shook her a little bit hopefully trying to bring her back but nothing was working.

"Cari come on wake up. Let daddy see you smile or cry or anything but please, please, please wake up!" I shouted and shook her again as Iris ran down the hill towards me. She saw what happened as gasped in horror.

"Did you check her pulse?" Iris demanded angrily.

"No," I said already thinking it wasn't going to do any good.

"Give her to me NOW ZIM!" She yelled and I hesitantly did so. If my baby was going to die she was going to die in my arms. As soon as Iris had her she pressed her two fingers up against Cari's neck.

"The place of entry isn't a fatal spot, why isn't she responding? Is there an exit wound?"

"I couldn't find one," I said as I tried to calm down.

"Well shit that's why. Cari…Cari wake up." Iris said and pressed down on the wound itself.

"What are you doing?!" I yelled protectively.

"Dammit Zim if she's still alive her body will tense up or she'll react to the pain of pressing onto the wound. If she's unconscious her body will tense if she's dead nothing will happen." Iris snapped and pressed on the wound again.

Her antenna perked and she looked up at me with a look that made my heart shatter again…

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**A/N: See it's kind of sad and messed up at the end. Sadly I've actually had to deal with a situation like that, but I don't really want to talk about it lol. That wasn't a fun day... Well I hope you enjoyed and review again you know the drill. Ha, alright thanks guys!**

**~Cari**


	6. A Storm Is Coming

**A/N: Ok so I re read this fanfic and realized it's hella girly...uhg makes me want to be sick. Well that'll be fixed here in the next couple of chapters. I guess my soft side was just showing more for this story then my usual you touch me you die bitch side =D**

**Please review. I slave all day over this computer trying to update for my viewers and I don't even get a single review in return! I waste my life here for you guys and the least you could do is review I mean COME ON! I work so hard for you the LEAST you can do is even leave me a smiley face or constructive criticism or SOMETHING for me to work with! PLEASEEEEEEEEE! I'm begging you LOL!**

**REVIEW DAMMIT!**

**~Cari =O**

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It's been hours since the accident and I was still shaking in a petrified state. Iris made me stay outside of the room she was in working on Cari while I paced and worried. I felt like every second was ticking by slowly just to taunt me.

"Iris can I come in yet?" I asked and gently knocked on the door.

"It's the same answer as it was five minutes ago Zim, no. I'm almost done, I promise." She called back with an annoyed sigh and added in, "Why don't you go down stairs and get some coffee or even some sleep. I mean it's nearly midnight…"

"I refuse to leave my daughters side until I know she's going to be ok." I protested and crossed my arms in a huff.

"ZIM!" She yelled making me shrink back into my soul.

"I'm going, I'm going…" I mumbled and slowly backed down the hallway until I reached the stair case. I was tempted to run back and ask if I could come in again but I had a feeling Iris would beat the hell out of me if I did.

Instead, I walked down the staircase as I quivered in horror and realization. MY baby was in a room dying and I wasn't in there to hold her hand, to comfort her through everything, to tell her it's going to be ok…

"Iris!" I shouted in a cracked voice.

"She's fine Zim! Go get coffee!" She yelled back in an angry voice that told me she wasn't kidding this time. Not that she was at any time but I couldn't seem to wrap that thought around my mind.

I was still shaking as I walked down stairs and collapsed onto a chair at the table. I completely forgot about the coffee as I put my face in my quaking hands and tried to regulate my breathing. I felt like my world was crashing down around me while crushing me under it.

Pain seared through my body as that image of Cari falling over onto the ground kept flashing through my mind and reopening the same wound I had been trying to patch up all night. My body ached as I thought why couldn't it have been me, or why couldn't I have reacted faster and grabbed the gun from the kid.

"Stop blaming yourself," A voice said behind me. I sighed and dropped my face onto the table in defeat.

"But it's my fault," I said back to Iris, "I should've gotten that gun away from the damn kid when I had the chance. Now my baby is dying in a 'medical' room because I was too slow."

"That's not true one bit and you know it. You did everything you could and she chose to protect you instead of watching you get shot instead." Iris said sternly and wrapped her arms around my shoulders from behind.

"I wish she had just watched me get shot instead," I whimpered with a groan and clenched my eyes shut.

"She wouldn't have known what to do like you did Zim," Iris soothed and gently rubbed my shoulders.

"I DIDN'T!" I protested back with agony lining my cracking voice.

"Stop it Zim, this isn't going to change what happened and the only thing that's going to come out of this is you going into depression and not being there for your baby when she needs you most." Iris growled and turned my chair around making my face slide off the table. I looked up at her with blood shot eyes and low antenna.

"She needs you Zim…" Iris said again with tired and worried eyes. I felt like curling up into a ball and bawling my eyes out right then and there but I knew I couldn't do that. Both of my girls needed me, just one more than the other. "I need you…"

With a sigh I reached my arms out to her and she walked over to sit in my lap. She wrapped her arms around my torso and buried her face in my chest. In all my worry and fretting I never even asked how this could be affecting her.

"Are you ok?"

"No…" She whimpered and closed her eyes gently.

"And you're not on your T.O.M?" I whispered into her antenna and rubbed her back lightly. **(A/N: All the Girls know what TOM stands for and most guys do too but for you clueless ones out there...well you're just going to have to keep staying clueless, sorry =))**

"No, that's just weird Zim." She growled back with a small laugh, "But thank you for trying to show concern."

"What, I was just asking," I objected making her laugh again.

"Just shut up Zim, you can see her now but she's trying to sleep so just be gentle." Iris whispered and pulled out of my grasp, "I'm gonna go to bed, call me if anything goes wrong." And with that she was gone, leaving like she always used to.

Without a second's notice I shot to my feet and sprinted upstairs almost sweating with worry. I rushed over to her bedroom door and stopped right in front of it, "Don't scare her Zim, go in calmly then freak out later," I said to myself and grabbed the door knob.

I gently pushed said door open and peered through the dark room to see Cari all bandaged up and asleep on her back. I slowly walked over to her bed side and grabbed her hand like it was a piece of fragile glass.

"Daddy?" I heard her ask in a rough voice.

"Yeah sweetie?" I answered and held her hand tighter.

"Thank you…" She whispered and squeezed my hand tightly, well as tight as she could in her sleepy state.

"I'm sorry," I whispered back and felt like breaking down right there in front of her.

"It's not your fault; I did what I had to." She said back and squeezed my hand again reassuringly.

"I don't want to talk about this right now," I whimpered and leaned over to hug her tightly, "I thought I lost you." And that's when the tears started coming.

"Dad please don't cry, that'll make me cry." Cari said with a small laugh and laid her head on my shoulder tiredly.

"Hell no, I'm gonna cry if I want to. I'm old I get the privilege of this." I choked out and hugged her tighter, "Please don't ever do that again."

"I don't think I would be jumping for joy if the offer came up again," She said pointedly. I didn't know what else to do and like a dumb ass I lifted her up and set her in my lap so I could hug her tighter.

"I thought I lost you," I repeated over and over and over again as I rocked her back and forth in my lap.

"You already said that," She teased in a gruff voice.

"I don't care. Never do that again, ever. If I lost you I don't know what I'd do, I'd probably kill myself!" I nearly wailed through loud sobs.

"Don't say that dad, I wouldn't want that." Cari protested in a panic. I looked down at her shocked face and kissed her cheek over and over and over and OVER again until she started complaining, "Dad! I'm ok really; I don't want a raw cheek in the morning thank you very much."

"Bite my ass, the baby I've raised since pretty much birth nearly died in my arms today because I was too slow and I hesitated. Do you realize how broken I would be!?"

"You'd get over it dad, things happen." Cari soothed even though it wasn't helping at all...

"Ever since I was wrapping you up in my black and red bandanna I vowed to protect you and because of me you almost died in my arms today! If you were still just a baby right now you'd probably still be in my bandanna and you wouldn't be leaving my sight."

"I still have your bandanna," She said with a small smile.

"Don't lie to me just to make me feel better," I growled at her and gave her a stern look that she just rolled her eyes at.

"I still have it," She said again and lifted up her arm to show me the bandanna attached to her wrist with the scars on them.

"How did I not notice that before?" I mumbled to myself and eyed the band feeling a warm fuzzy feeling bubble up in my heart…thing…

"I only wear it at night, when I can't sleep or when something's bothering me." She admitted and played with the band with her opposite hand.

"Why didn't you just come get me?" I asked gently and quirked an eye brow at her.

"You were already there, just in a different way." She said and pointed to the bandanna again.

"You're so damn confusing." I said back and started calming down, "But you're my confusing child and that's how it's going to stay, forever."

"You're such a dad," She complained and kissed my cheek, "But you're my dad."

"You're such a girl."

"Excuse me?"

"Kidding ha ha…just kidding…" I said with wide eyes. I did not want to get on her bad side especially when it came to this kind of thing.

"I know you are, or at least you better be." She said through a small yawn. I looked down to see her big blue eyes drooping slightly and my heart melted again.

"Are you tired?" I asked gently making her antenna twitch. That's when I knew she was ready to pass out.

"No," She lied and curled up in my lap.

"Lies, I'll let you rest." I protested back and lifted her up again to put her back down onto the bed.

"At least stay with me until I fall asleep!" Cari said quickly and grabbed onto my arm before I could pull away. I saw that look in her eyes that told me she wasn't kidding and I was going to be in trouble with her if I didn't.

"Fine, but if you stay awake just to talk to me…" I warned with a stern look in my eyes.

"I won't," She interrupted with a roll of her eyes. "I love you dad."

"I love you too car, now get some sleep." I commanded and kissed her forehead before tucking her in and plopping back down in the chair near her bed. She smiled at me and reached her hand out towards me. Of course being the sap I was I reached over and grabbed her hand back.

She closed her eyes after that but refused to let go of my hand until she fell asleep. I knew this when her hand slipped out of my grip and whenever I asked her a question her antenna would bounce. "I love you sweetie, get some rest." I whispered and shut the door very quietly so I wouldn't re-wake her up.

I walked slowly down the hallway and into my room to see Iris asleep on my bed. She was still cute as hell when she slept just like she used to be, "Damn you women…" I whispered with a sigh and smiled down at her sleeping figure.

I got into just my boxers and crawled under the blankets with her making her wake up, "Huh?"

"It's just me Iris, go back to sleep." I whispered back and pulled the comforter up to my underarms. Iris grumbled something in response before rolling over and going back to sleep. I smiled at her cuteness and pulled her closer to me by her waist.

"Hey," She protested and shifted in bed again.

"Hey, you're mine and I haven't slept with you in seventeen years. I think I at least deserve this." I said back with a small laugh. She laughed back and kissed my cheek before snuggling up close to me and laying her head over my arm, onto a pillow. "There that's better isn't it?"

"Shut up," She growled back with a yawn and started closing her eyes again. I reached my arm around her waist and spooned around her before finally relaxing and laying my head into a pillow so I could sleep too.

* * *

When sleep finally came it slammed down on me like a brick falling onto my face and stayed for a long time until a loud scream broke through the night.

I shot up and realized I was sitting outside, but everything was black and gray and creepy. I heard the scream again and shot to my feet recognizing Cari's voice, "Cari!" I yelled out in horror and started sprinting off towards where the sound was coming from.

"Dad help me! Help!" She screamed again making my heart nearly stop. I pounded faster in the direction of the voice and before I knew it the ground caved in from under my feet and I was tumbling down a hell with a yowl of pain.

"Cari, where are you!?" I shouted into the night as I put a hand over my aching back.

"Help me dad! Help!"

"I'm coming!" I called into the eerie darkness and started running again towards her voice. Sweat beads formed on my face as my heart leapt into my throat. I was terrified that I couldn't find her.

"He's coming dad, hurry! I don't want to go back!" Cari yelled in a petrified voice.

"Who's coming!? Where is he trying to take you?" I shouted back as my voice cracked in all different ways and for all different reasons.

I tripped over large, dead branches as I ran and hurt my ankle on the very last one. "Shit!" I yelled as the searing pain burst into my left ankle. Why this always had to happen to me was beyond my knowledge.

"DAD!" Cari screamed making me instantly jump to my feet and start running again. No matter how much pain I was in I was not going to lose my little girl again. Never again.

I finally pushed into a gray clearing, everything was dead and dark. Some things were even burning; it was like I was in hell or something! "Cari! Where are you?" I called and walked around in a small circle hoping to spot her somewhere…anywhere.

Suddenly a tall Irken with blood red eyes came out of the shadows holding something by the neck in his hand. "Kazu! What the hell are you doing here?" I shouted protectively at his sadistic grin.

"Getting my revenge," he said back and squeezed the thing in his hand harder until it screamed again, "Dad, please help me!"

"Cari!" I shouted in horror.

"It's Rea you fool; you took her away from me for the past fifteen years but no more. You're never going to see my daughter again." Another figure said. He walked out and immediately I recognized him as tallest purple. Unsurprisingly he was with a very pissed off looking Red.

"Please, don't take her away from me!" I begged them and fell onto my knees as Red pointed a gun at my head. "Please! She's my baby don't take her away from me!"

"She's MY daughter, not yours you pathetic defect. Now I'm going to have to beat some sense into her and teach her how to rule even though she's a defect too." Purple snarled and pointed a long finger at me.

"She is not a defect! She's a very smart, beautiful and successful girl!" I snapped back with a pissed off face. They better not lay a finger on her!

"Kazu, knock her out." Purple order while Cari kept calling out to me. Kazu whacked her with the butt of a gun making her go still and quiet and making me break.

"Please! Please don't take her away from me!" I begged again as I searched their eyes for anything.

"You killed my child Zim and kidnapped Purple's we're taking you away from her!"

"Dad!" Cari yelled again suddenly being awake.

"Please!" I shouted, nearly in tears.

"DAD!" She snapped again and suddenly I was back in my room, in my bed with Cari standing over me. She had a worried look on her face as I stared up at her feeling sick. "You were having a nightmare. I could hear you all the way from my room."

"You're still here, they didn't take you," I said in relief and realized I had nearly tore the bed apart and covered it with sweat from my constant flailing.

"Who didn't take me? What are you talking about?" She asked in a concerned tone and grabbed my sweaty, shaking hand. "You're shaking…"

"Oh thank god he didn't take you…" I nearly shouted as I pulled her into a tight hug.

"Can't breathe," She gasped and gagged.

"Sorry!" I said guiltily and loosened up my grip.

"Ok you can hug me as soon as you go get all the sweat off of you. Seriously." She said in disgust and pulled away from me.

"I just had a nightmare about tallest purple taking you away from me and you're telling me you're not going to hug me until I get rid of the sweat?" I said with a look on my face that made her give me a shocked look back.

"Ok, ok. But you owe me." Cari grumbled and hugged me again. I pulled her into my lap and squeezed her tightly and kissed her cheek.

"I love you," We said simultaneously and laughed with bright smiles on our faces.

"Thanks for waking me up sweet heart, that's the worst it's been since it started." I sighed and hugged her again.

"No problem dad, it was that and I wanted breakfast. So Cari commands you to cook food for her!" I laughed at that too and rolled my eyes.

"You are a mirror of me back in my invader days."

It had been about a week since Cari was shot and I was having the same nightmare over and over and over again every night since. Iris decided to stay after Cari insisted she did so for saving her life and saving me when we were a little bit younger but she'd get up super early to go work out in the lab. Gir got recharged and settled down some before deciding that all the other dogs were too far ahead of him in fitness and started working out with Iris. It was all very confusing…

Cari was healing nicely…thank god, but she was still sore sometimes and other times she wouldn't be able to get up out of bed without help or just deciding to stay there all day and rest. Not much had changed; I haven't seen those boys in a while though, so I was hoping they decided to stay away from me and my family for good. However, I had been having a horrible nagging feeling lately that there was a storm coming…and it was going to be big…

* * *

**A/N: SEE it's soooo girly! Well that's going to change. Please review that's the least you could do you guys. I write for you all the time and you don't review. I mean come on. Just one from some of you that's all I ask for and you hardly have to do anything, you don't even have to log in. It's the least you could do for me while I write these good long chapters for you all to read!**

**LOL ~Cari PLEASE REVIEWWWWWWWWW!**


	7. The Day My World Shattered

**A/N: Hey I'm back, it's been a few days since I updated so here it is! This is a pretty long chapter, 10 pages in the word document I was typing it on haha. So please enjoy and please dear God just review and tell me what you think! Seriously...**

**Well, here's chapter 6 =), Enjoy!**

**~Bad ass Brady**

* * *

Six months later…

It's been six months since Iris came, since Cari got shot, since my nightmares. Sadly, I still couldn't shake them that easily, I'd have the same one every few nights and then it would cease happening for another couple nights.

Today was different though, it was rather stormy outside and rain was coming off and no for no random reason. I knew very well not to be out in this kind of weather as did Cari. It was more Iris I was worried about, she forgets these rules sometimes and carelessly walks out anyways ending up with burns all over her body.

I felt tired, and old…but that was just me. It was already almost eight o'clock in the morning and I still wasn't up out of bed to do things. I could hear the rain beating down against my window and the whistle of the wind blowing through our area. I just prayed to Irk that the horses were smart enough to find some shelter in the barn through all of this.

My hands wandered up to rub under my tired eyes as a yawn erupted from my throat. Iris had gone down to the lab hours ago with Gir to work out more and Irk knows what Cari was doing, probably in her room writing. It was one of her favorite hobbies. She even had an account on some site to post some of these stories for other people to read. Apparently she'd been getting good views and bad.

I groaned into my hands while staring at the ceiling in boredom. I hated these types of days when I just wasn't in the mood to really do anything and I couldn't do anything outside because of the horrid rain. Strangely shower water didn't affect me but rain did. Maybe I was just getting too used to these Earthly customs.

Maybe I should go make plans to blow up Dibs house; I didn't even know what had become of him after I left Earth all those years ago. When I was claimed as a defect and told I either join the bounty hunters or be killed. I felt cowardly joining them but I had a feeling something greater would come out of it for me and I knew a few friends in the group that told me to just come with them. Still, I felt like a yellow or a captain not going down with his ship.

I remembered that day like it just happened yesterday.

_Flash back_

_A loud knock was heard at my door, "GIR! Get the door, your master commands it!" I shouted while working on my latest INGENIOUS plan. This one was full proof; I just knew it this time. _

"_I don't wanna!" Gir screeched back making me grab my antenna in frustration._

"_GIR!" I yelled again in a more threatening manner when the pounding on the door became more violent and demanding. _

"_Okey dokey!" He screamed then silence filled the air. I heard the door open and Gir greeting someone but I didn't really care. I only cared about my newest most amazing plan! Humanity wouldn't know what hit them after this one. "Master, some people are here to see yoooouuuuu! They say you are WANTED!" Gir screamed, once again ripping me away from my focus._

"_What Gir, Zim is busy!" I yelled angrily and walked up stairs with my goggles still on. I grabbed my wig and contacts on the way and lifted my goggles up onto my forehead to apply said contacts. The itchy wig was next._

_With a huff I stormed up stairs only to be brutally whacked across the face with a baton. Yelling, I fell down onto my back holding my newly bruised cheek. "What is the meaning of this!" I yelled and looked up to see a large amount of Irken soldiers glaring down at me._

"_Ex-Invader Zim, you are wanted by your tallest for judgment!" Ex-Invader, they must be at the wrong person's house._

"_Zim is no ex-Invader, Zim is AMAZING! I AM ZIM!" I yelled with a fist in the air. _

"_He really is a dumb ass isn't he?" An all too familiar voice said in her stupid little British accent, oh how I hated her._

"_TAK! What are you doing in Zim's AMAZING base! You filthy creature!" I snapped while pointed a gloved finger at her. I was still on the ground trying to pull myself up but the soldier that hit me made me see stars with his first hit._

"_You're a defect Zim, and the tallest are tired of you," She spat back at me and knelt down to my unbelieving face._

"_You're lying!" I screamed only to be slapped across the face. _

"_Uhg, just knock him out already! The tallest can deal with him." Tak groaned and cracked her knuckles after slapping me._

_ I screamed as the soldiers came over to me and wrapped a gag around my mouth. Another soldier grabbed my wrists and handcuffed me while ordering his partner to shackle my ankles. I was being kidnapped! The tallest would have something to say about this!_

_I glared at Tak as my wig slipped off of my head showing my angry looking antenna. Screaming Irken curse words at her through my gag she walked over and ordered one of her soldiers to give her the baton. Once she got what she wanted she lifted said baton over her head and cracked me across the face again and again and again until I was finally unconscious. _

_When I woke up next I was still gaged, handcuffed, and shackled at the ankles, only I was on my knees staring at the ground. My whole body ached as I looked up to see the tallest standing over me with smirks and grins tugging at their features. 'My tallest?' I thought._

"_Finally you're awake Zim," Red jeered and slightly bent down to send me a glare. I tried talking through my gag asking what was going on but my every word became muffled by the inferior cloth. _

"_Yeah we've been waiting for hours!" Purple complained as he stuffed his face with a bag of doughnuts. _

"_Take off his gag," Red ordered one of the soldiers standing behind me, where I couldn't see them. A female soldier came over and ripped the gag off my mouth harshly making me slightly jerk to the side._

"_M-my tallest…what is the meaning of this?" I asked hoarsely as my glazed over eyes stared up at them in disbelief. _

"_Still as oblivious as ever Zim, don't you get it? You're a DEFECT! A worthless appendage to the Irken Empire!" Red howled in anger. He was fed up with all this nonsense. _

"_Yeah a defect!" Purple added in as he stuffed another doughnut into his face. I felt empty hearing those words like a cold, dark fluid was running all over my body which I was just guessing was shock. Then it was denial, surely this must be some kind of prank they are pulling on me?_

"_My tallest, if this is a prank-,"I groaned out only to be silenced again._

"_It started out as a joke Zim, we wanted you gone and out of the Empire so we sent you off into space in hopes that you would die out there and never return! Then when you ended up on Earth we used you as a good entertainment channel, something everyone could get a good laugh at. But now after ten years, ten fucking years Zim! We are fed up; you're just a nuisance now!" Red shouted and pointed a finger accusingly at me._

"_If this is about my lack of destroying the planet I can assure you-," _

"_Shut up Zim! You just don't get it do you? You're a defect Zim you always have been and you always will! So we're giving you a choice." Purple snapped and threw his bag of snacks across the room leaving his hopeless soldiers to feed off of them._

"_W-what…?" I said in disbelief. They weren't kidding; they really meant all the things they were saying about me._

"_Two choices Zim, you can join the bounty hunter group that captured you so we don't ever have to see you again because thank Irk they always travel the galaxy in search of the wanted, or we can kill you right here, right now in front of the whole Empire." Red said harshly as a soldier came up and shoved me back down onto my stomach. Apparently I was sitting up too straight or something. _

_I managed to get back up onto my knees and suck in some air seeing as the soldier that kicked me knocked the wind out of me. My head was spinning, my eyes were slightly watering, my heart was breaking in two, I felt betrayed and I felt stupid. _

"_Well Zim, you have three minutes to make your decision." Purple growled and walked off with Red to get some more snacks. _

_In shock, I stared at the ground in front of me and just sat there with my head bowed. All these years of planning, getting beaten up by Dib, being made fun of, trying so hard…it was all just a joke?_

"_Pssst, hey Zim!" Someone hissed from behind me. I craned my neck as far as I could to the left to see who was addressing me now. It was a tallish purple eyed Irken that I sort of remembered from Invader training._

"_What?" I asked with a slightly cracked voice. All my nightmares were coming true in one single day._

"_I know it's kind of shameful, but choose to join the bounty hunter group, it's better than death and you get paid for it." The Irken whispered back without making eye contact with me._

"_All I want to do right now IS die…" I said as tears started slipping out of my eyes. Geez I really was a defect, never in my whole entire life had I seen an Irken cry over something like this._

"_Trust me, this is better. Now they're coming back, remember choose the bounty hunter group!" He said a final time before shutting up and looking straight ahead. I kept looking at him in confusion until someone kicked me in the right side making me fall with an 'oomph'. I landed on my side and looked up with watery eyes to see tallest Red and Purple hovering over me angrily._

"_I needed that." Red said with a sigh and a smile._

"_Have you decided yet?" Purple yelled at me making me cringe._

"_Y-yes my tallest." I said weakly as I stared at them in horror._

"_Well?"_

_I slightly glanced back at the purple eyed Irken before taking in a deep breath and answering, "I chose the bounty hunter group." _

_Every Irken in the room either scoffed or started laughing, "We always knew you were a yellow Zim, afraid to die so you're taking the easy way out." I cried more at that last comment. _

"_Fine, bounty hunter group it is! Ted, take this pathetic excuse for an Irken out of are sight and see to it that we never see him again!" Purple snarled as a red eyed Irken ran over to me and roughly grabbed me by the arm._

_I slowly obliged and got onto my shaky feet before being drug off by Ted. My body felt heavy and I felt bags already growing under my eye lids from all the crying. _

_End of flash back_

I ground my teeth together at the memory and clenched my fists together so tightly I thought I was going to cut into the palms of my hands. I got my revenge on them and at the time it felt like the best thing to do in the whole world when really…it wasn't.

After I found Cari and took her away from her abusive father I realized because of them, the best thing that's ever happened to me happened. If I could, I'd thank them and hug them for what they gave me but I knew that was never to happen.

If they EVER found out about me keeping their child as my own they WOULD kill me, with no choice. And after I survived the tallest trials they probably wouldn't give me the chance of fighting in some sick form of entertainment for my life. Still, they gave me a blessing in a way. Only thing was they didn't even know they gave it to me.

I wondered sometimes what they thought happened to Cari and if they'd ever gone searching for her or for Red's daughter's killer. Obviously they either didn't, or they suck at investigating things because I was still here today, living and breathing all the way.

I was distracted from my thoughts when a soft knock was applied to my cherry wooden door. "Come in," I called and stared at the ceiling as I heard the door creaking open.

"Dad?" Speaking of Cari…

"Yeah?" I asked as she walked over to my side of the bed and gave me a confused look.

"Why aren't you up?" She asked with a small smile on her face.

"There's nothing to do and I've just been basking in memories here, it passes the time I guess." I answered and shrugged making her cock her eye brow at me.

"What memories?"

"Oh just things like the tallest trials and when I found out I was a defect." I answered through another bored sigh.

"Why only the bad memories?"

"Because they all led to good memories. I met Iris in the tallest trials and when I found out I was a defect I matured a lot, I was retrained to be able to fight like a real soldier and I got to travel the universe. So as you can see with every bad comes a good. Like a blessing in disguise."

"I guess that is good in a way…anyways mom said that someone was trying to contact you over your computer down in the lab. She didn't answer because it was an unknown call but she asked me to tell you and get you out of bed."

"Mom?" I asked curiously, never before had Cari called Iris mom. That was almost unbelievable. "Sounds like you two are bonding nicely."

"Yeah…anyways, do you know who'd be calling?"

"No idea, but I'll check it out right now." I groaned and sat up making my back crack. Cari cringed upon hearing the crack making me chuckle slightly.

"What?"

"Oh nothing, nothing," I said innocently and looked away trying to hide my growing smirk. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine I guess." She answered making me slightly worried.

"I guess? Is it the bullet again?" I asked protectively.

"Dad I was shot six months ago. I'm healed now and everything's alright really, I'm fine." Cari said with a small laugh of her own, "Really dad, I'm ok."

"And tomorrow you'll be sore, now help me up or at least get off of my legs so I can get up." I muttered making her give me a sorry look and stand up.

"Sorry," She mumbled and reached a hand out to me.

"Don't be, you used to do it when you were little too, well you'd sit on the bed in between my legs since you were so small but that's when I'd wake up every morning, to you demanding food or to be hugged or something crazy."

"Hey I still do that."

"I know." I groaned again and stood up to stretch.

"Can I watch you make the call?" She asked eagerly as I stretched my arms and yawned.

Hearing her ask that made me slightly…mad I guess or protective, I don't know how I'd explain it, "No!" I said harshly making her flinch, "Sorry, I didn't mean to be so harsh but you know damn well if someone see's that I have you you'll be taken away from me and I'll be killed; now I don't know about you but neither of those things sound very good to me."

"Oh yeah…I guess I forgot…" She mumbled under her breath. "Can't I just go off to some random location, call the tallest and tell them I never want to see them again and I'm going to be adopted by you or something?"

"Good god child are you trying to get us killed!?" I nearly screamed, "Purple would probably be pissed at you and take you by force and then they'd be pissed at me and probably kill me saying I did something to you."

"Well I don't want to have to be constantly hiding any more dad. I want to be able to contact people on Irk without fear, I want to be able to hear you say that I am your daughter and still have people know it's a lie. I want to be 'alive' I mean no one but you and mom even know I exist let alone that I'm still alive after you killed my cousin!" I froze when she said that and I felt…stung I guess, maybe it would be-no what am I thinking.

"Cari please don't say that, you know very well I'd love to have you do all of those things and more but it just isn't going to happen, if you want to stay being my daughter and if I want to keep you as my daughter I have to keep you hidden. Why do you think I've worked so hard all of these years to protect you, help you, and make you happy? It was all so that you felt normal and that you still did exist just without being known by our race anymore." I tried to explain as I pulled some pants and a shirt on.

"So I can't be real because you don't want to lose me?" She growled making me get slightly aggravated again. Why was she suddenly going off on me about this?

"Do you still want to be my daughter?" I asked harshly and sent a slight glare her way.

"Well…yes," She sighed back while not making eye contact with me.

"Then it's not just because I don't want to lose you. I love you very much and that is why I am hiding you from everyone. You're my little girl and I thought I was supposed to be your father, the one you always looked up to and loved. If that's not how you feel anymore I can let you go back to Irk to live your own life, but I can't go with you and you'd have to forget that I even exist. Is that really what you want?" I asked harshly again. "And I didn't have to save you that night fifteen years ago, but I did because I didn't want your father to hurt you anymore and I fell in love, you're my little girl and that's how I'd like it to stay unless you want differently."

"Sometimes I wish that you hadn't saved me, at least then I could be real and the world would know that I still exist!" Cari snapped back making a hurt look spread across my face.

I looked over at her in shock to see her staring angrily at me but also in shock, "You aren't serious…" I said in a very quiet tone. I thought I had been doing everything right and making sure she was happy with her life here. Apparently I was wrong.

"Maybe I am Zim maybe I want to go home! My real home!" She said raising her voice at me. The words rang through my head like church bells and I felt my heart start breaking again.

"I thought I was dad…" I said in a hushed tone as I calmly looked over at her.

"I want to get to know my REAL dad for who he is!" She yelled with slightly watery eyes. She was just lashing out, she had to be…

"Cari…I didn't know…" I was at a loss for words now, how long has she been keeping these angry feelings in…?

"Didn't know what Zim, that even though you may not have a chance at a good life anymore, I might still have one and want one! Or is it that since you no longer have a life on Irk that you wanted company and took me without thinking about what I want!"

"Then why haven't you left yet!?" I snapped accidentally. I knew that comment scared her because of the look of horror crossing her features. She must've realized that I was serious about it. If she was so unhappy then why the hell wasn't she out of my life yet?

"Am I interrupting something?" Someone said. Both Cari and I snapped our gazes over to see a kind of shocked Iris standing in the door way near Cari.

"No, I was just leaving," Cari snapped and shoved past Iris leaving me shocked, hurt, confused and betrayed.

"What was that about?" Iris asked while gently shutting the door behind her.

I was still at a loss of words as I stared at the door. "Zim...?" Iris asked softly and walked over to me.

"I-I need to be alone right now Iris, I'm sorry, I'll explain later." I whispered without making eye contact with her. I pushed past her and stormed out of our room before walking out side with an umbrella and rain coat on. I did not want to be taking any chances right now.

I rushed out of the house into the pouring rain and walked over to my car here on Earth. Still feeling hollow and confused I opened the door and got in to its shelter, closing the door after myself.

I started my car while blankly staring out the windshield; I couldn't believe that Cari wanted to leave me, all because she wanted to know other people know she exists. Still thinking about the subject, I backed out of our small circular drive way and put the car in drive. I didn't even know where I was going, but I just needed some time alone to think.

I pulled out and drove down the gravely road until the real road came into view. I turned on my left blinker and waited until it was clear (Which it always was) to pull out and drive slowly down all the back roads that formed my house.

Finally after about twenty minutes of driving I pulled over into a slightly woodsy area and put it in park to think. 'She wants to leave and go home. That means I'd lose her but she gets to choose her own life. That's the right thing to do right? But what if Purple started abusing her again. She'd want to come back to me…but she'd have a tracking device on her without a doubt. They'd find us and take her away again before killing me, then she'd be stuck with an abusive father.' I battled with myself about this in my head for a good hour.

'If it's what she wants then I'd give up my life just to make her happy…So I'll let her choose and I'll deal with the consequences afterwards.' Yeah that was a good idea. Either way I didn't win in this battle but I never usually did before and I could handle it, so it didn't bother me.

With A long sigh I pulled back out and drove another twenty minutes home. The house was lit up, Iris was probably starting dinner by now and I'm guessing Cari locked herself away in her room and is trying to sleep off the earlier argument.

I pulled my umbrella back out and popped my car door open, it was still raining crazily and the wind had picked up. While rushing over to the house to avoid the rain I noticed the front door was ajar and the screen door was slamming up against the house noisily.

Normally, Iris would've closed that by now…Weird. I pushed the door open and shut both the screen door and the door behind me. I looked around not seeing any signs of life and walked quietly into the kitchen. "Iris! Cari! Gir!" I shouted hearing it echo through the house.

Food was on the stove still cooking and profusely boiling over so I turned off the stove and put the pan off to the side. This was really strange. "Iris!" I called out again…still no answer.

'Maybe they're upstairs asleep or something…' I silently told myself seeing as it had grown dark pretty quickly while I was out thinking.

With another heavy sigh I walked up the stairs as quietly as possible and walked over to Cari's room, "Car…I'm sorry for yelling at you earlier. I've thought about what you said and I think that we could maybe-," I said quietly as I pushed her door open.

When I looked inside my whole world stopped. Iris was on the ground unconscious and tied at the wrists and ankles, Cari was sitting on the bed crying with a gag in her mouth along with her wrists and ankles tied and…Ben stood next to them.

"It's nice to see you again Zim." He spat as someone came up behind me. I turned around just in time to get cracked across the face with a hammer or a baton, at the moment I really couldn't tell.

Cari screamed as she stared at me. It all felt like it was in slow motion. I fell onto my knees in front of Ben with a pained expression crossing my face. Someone was handcuffing my wrists together. I didn't even fight back, I couldn't. I was in shock and slightly dazed from the hard hit.

"Did you contact the tallest?" I asked Cari in horror realizing if she got mad she easily could've contacted them asking to come home…

Ben walked up to me blocking Cari from my view and punched me in the stomach, "After all these years, you finally got caught. How does it feel Zim, to know that every last happy thing that's happened in your life is about to be shattered into a million pieces."

I tried to answer but he knocked the wind out of me with that last hit, "You've gotten old Zim, I'm impressed that you're still even alive. You've gotten old and weak what's ironic is I recall when you and Iris did this to me!" He motioned to his eye patch and the scars lining his face, "You said you'd never go soft and look at you know, you're softer that a bunny's ass, it's almost pathetic."

My eyes were wide this whole time as I stared at him; I was dreaming…I had to be dreaming…

Ben slapped me across the face at my lack of response, "Are you the murderer of tallest Red's daughter!?" He yelled as I went down. I felt my cheek slam into the cold hard wood of the ground as my whole body came to realization. This wasn't a dream, I'd been caught…

"Are you!" Ben asked again and grabbed my neck. I choked and gasped as he lifted me up in the air and threw me into the wall where all Cari's pictures hung.

Pictures fell from the wall hitting me in the chest and face only causing my whole world to start spinning and stars to dance across my gaze. "Answer me you pathetic defect!"

I looked up at him angrily and glared, how dare he touch my daughter, how dare he touch my mate, how dare he touch ME!

"So I can see you're not going to be talking anytime soon so how's about I give you a little push?" He spat and walked over to a still screaming Cari. She was flailing in her restraints and glaring at Ben until he pulled a gun out of his belt. He put it up against the side of her head with his finger on the trigger making my heart stop.

"You have ten seconds to answer my question Zim." He threatened and looked me straight in the eyes with his soulless blood red ones.

"5…4…3…2…"

"YES! I killed her! I killed Red's daughter, don't hurt her please!" I shouted out in horror. "It's my fault, I kidnapped Purples daughter after killing Red's, she has nothing to do with this please! Please don't hurt my baby!"

"You're baby!" Ben yelled and hit me across the face with the butt of his gun. "You own nothing on this young girl's body! She is the Almighty Tallest Purples baby, not yours you fucking DEFECT!"

"I-I…" I struggled to say, "You're right…"

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**A/N: This is an almost sad ending to this chapter. I didn't explain it in the chapter but Zim isn't fighting back for a reason, and it's not just because of the shock. Anyways, with the fight and the storm I just had to introduce the real start to the problem haha. **

**Now I need your guy's help, please review and tell me what you think. I feel like this story isn't going to go anywhere if I don't at least get one measly review. Please?**

**Anyways, until next time =D**

**~Bad ass Brady**


	8. Oh shi

**A/N: Hey everyone! I'M BACK! My cat passed away in my arms a week or so ago on the way to the vet so I haven't done anything except drag my ass to school and lock myself in my room. Today is the first day I started eating again because my damn parents forced me to have food. ='(Well enough about my sob story here's chapter seven!**

**Please review and I own nothing but my OC's and the plot line! Thank you.**

**~Bad ass Brady**

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_Zim's POV._**  
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"Of course I'm right you dumb ass! You're just a pathetic Irken that can't even produce your own kid so you have to go kidnap someone else's! I hope to Irk that the Tallest let me kill you myself as a gift to them!" Ben yelled as he punched me hard in the side of the jaw.

I let out a choked yelp as my head snapped sideways from the force of the blow. He grinned at my slight weak noises and grabbed me by the neck. Before I knew it, I was being lifted into the air as his grip tightened on my neck.

My hands were still handcuffed behind my back so I was completely at his mercy. Well he had none so I was screwed…yeah that's a better way to put it.

"Why won't you just pass out already dammit!" Ben shouted and slammed me up against a wall. I let out another small whimper of protest feeling my back hit a picture frame. This of course, didn't go unnoticed by Ben.

"What, having trouble taking down a simple defect?" I spat in his face. My mouth was dripping blood now so it was safe to say that Ben would now probably kill me for spitting blood on his precious armor.

"If I wasn't being paid for this job I would've killed you right here, right now!" Ben yelled and pointed to Cari, "And you're 'precious daughter' would have to witness the life leaking out of your eyes. I'd make her sit right in front of you as you died you fucking defect!"

My expression hardened into one of pure, arrogant rage. "Don't you touch her." I hissed at him through tiny gasps. My face was flushed and bleeding now and the lack of oxygen was not helping a god damned thing.

"What are you going to do about it?" He taunted and threw me onto the ground. I took big gasps of air as soon as I hit the floor while coughing and spluttering. Yeah that's not a pretty sight.

Ben walked over to Cari who had stopped screaming by now and was just sitting there looking horrified. He grabbed her by the neck and slammed her into the wall he'd just thrown me from. She let out a loud yelp of pain and I completely snapped.

When he wasn't looking I slipped my wrists under my body and up so they were now handcuffed in the front instead of the back. He was saying something to Cari making her scream and flail and making me even more pissed.

"Don't touch my baby!" I yelled and kicked his leg out from under him. With a yell he fell to the floor thus dropping Cari whom landed next to him.

Ben stood up with blood red eyes showing just how pissed he really was but I didn't care one bit. He touched my daughter; I was going to hurt him. "That was a big mistake defect," He spat the word and cracked his knuckles.

Without a seconds hesitation I sprang forward and wrapped the middle, chain part of my handcuffs around his bunched up wrist. I pulled him forward making him stumble. I then proceeded to lunge forward and smack my head into his.

He howled in pain but I hadn't let go of him yet. I kicked the back of his leg making him fall and bring me down with him. Once we were on the ground, I felt like I had the upper hand so I put my knee on his chest and my hand cuff chain over his neck.

He coughed loudly as I choked him until he lifted his hand up and gave some weird signal towards the door. "Nina," He gasped out, "Now would be a good time to interfere."

My antenna rose in alert but again I was too late. I was knocked to the side by a really short girl with black eyes. Frightening much…

I grunted as I hit the ground but she didn't fight like Ben. She was on her target every second and wouldn't let me out of her sight. She pounced on me and creepily licked my neck making me try and shove her off in disgust.

However, she wouldn't budge. She just sickly grinned down at me and reached up for my antenna. "Nina, play time is later! Just knock him out already!" Ben shouted while rubbing his newly bruised neck.

Nina growled and glared back at him before grabbing both of my antenna and jerking on them. I screamed in agony as my eyes watered. Yeah she fought dirty too; great that's just freaking great. I was flung into another wall and immediately punched in the jaw and the stomach.

Within seconds I was on the floor groaning as stars danced across my gaze. I felt dizzy, sick, scared and sore. I stared up at the ceiling light as I groaned and rolled onto my side. I didn't get the satisfaction of catching my breath though. Within seconds Nina had kicked me in the stomach and stabbed the very tip of my antenna with her knife.

I screamed louder than I've ever screamed in my life upon the impact of the knife and flailed around. The most sensitive part on an Irkens body usually doesn't get aimed for in a fight unless the attacker is desperate but in this case I think she just wanted to see me scream.

She cut down the external layer of my antenna making me scream even louder and arch my back in agony. "Stop! Please stop!" I screamed and tried to get away from her but nothing was working.

"I'll only stop if I get to play with yoooouuuuu." Nina said in a sick tone and put her hand on my chest. Oh god no. there was no way in hell I was getting raped in front of my daughter.

"I'd rather die." I spat through clenched teeth.

"That can be arranged…" Nina whispered and leaned in close to my face.

"Just knock him out!" Ben ordered and pulled a blaster towards Cari, "It's either you give up or she goes to the tallest in a body bag. And I can tell them you were the shooter."

A look of horror crossed my expression as I stared wide eyed at him, "Don't hurt her, you can do whatever the hell you want to me just please don't hurt my baby." I whimpered. Everything hurt now but especially my pounding antenna and head. That hurt like a bitch.

"Good," Ben said and turned the blaster on me. He pulled the trigger and a laser flew out of the gun barrel before hitting me straight in the chest.

I cried out in pain again feeling blood drip out of my chest and soak the gray shirt I was in. The world around me had started spinning and going dark. I felt my cheek come in contact with the ground as I slipped into unconsciousness and possibly death. I had no idea how bad the injury was and honestly…I was afraid to find out.

I tried to keep my eyes focused on Cari as I collapsed next to Iris but they were rolling back towards the ground every time I tried to lift them. With the last bit of my consciousness I looked up at Cari and whispered, "I'm sorry." Then my head fell onto the wood next to Iris's and I was unconscious.

_Narrators POV._

Zim collapsed onto the ground unconscious with bruises and cuts all over his face and body. Cari watched, mortified at the scene before her feeling a hollow coldness worm its way into her stomach.

'He's protecting me with his life…even after what I said to him. I'm such a horrible person' she thought through pained tears. She was stuck with these two maniacs now.

Ben turned to her still fuming mad but tried to calm himself before turning back to his creepy partner. "Ok, now let's get them all on board." She nodded in agreement before turning towards Cari with a sick grin. "Nu uh, I've got this one. Tallest's special order."

Cari was now shaking in fear and horror as Ben walked over and grabbed her by her forearm, she wanted to fight back but the energy had been drained out of her from struggling against the bonds. "Are you alright Princess Rae? Your father is very excited to get you back." She did nothing but staring at the floor with slight bags under her eyes. She'd been beating herself up about yelling at her dad and this just topped it off.

They walked out of the house in the rain…but Ben didn't seem to mind the burns he was getting, neither was Nina. However, Cari was flailing and trying not to cry out in pain. Water could seriously be a bitch sometimes couldn't it? "Sorry princess, we'll be in the air ship in just a second." Ben said seeing her pain.

Soon enough they appeared at a camouflaged air ship; Ben helped Cari inside first before climbing in with Zim on his shoulder and Iris on Nina's.

The air ship was just like any other you could imagine. We had a control panel near the front and a few bed rooms in the back seeing how it was a long journey from Irk to Earth and back. The inside coloring was a deep black as the outside was purple and red as a way to respect the leaders of Irk.

Ben walked Cari back into the very last bedroom and untied her ankles and wrists. "I hope you'll be comfortable in here Princess and if you need anything; anything at all, just call us and we'll get it for you."

"I want my dad," Cari said immediately as soon as the gag was taken out of her mouth.

"We're going to see him right now," Ben answered and walked over to turn on a lamp for Cari to see by.

"Not that dad, I want Zim and I demand to see him now." She growled lowly making Ben smirk.

"Sorry Princess, but since it's been fifteen years of you not being in power I am not going to follow out with that order. Talk to your father when we get back to Irk."

"You just said I can have whatever I want and I WANT MY DAD!" Cari snapped and lowered her antenna angrily at him.

"Wow, Zim taught you how to be a smart ass AND a brat didn't he? I feel so sorry for you." Ok now he was just dismissing the subject all together. Cari turned her back to her and glared at the floor until she felt something come in contact with her arm. She looked over, frightened at being grabbed so harshly, only to see Ben with a small smirk on his face.

"I cannot wait to get you home to the tallest so I can claim you." He said with a disgusting smile. 'What */does he mean by that…WHAT DOES HE MEAN!? Oh god I want dad, I want him to go away! GO AWAY!' Cari screamed in her head as he stared blankly at him.

"What are you talking about…?" She asked half-heartedly.

"You'll see soon my princess," He hinted before walking out of the room.

"I AM NO ONE'S!" Cari screamed angrily as Ben shut and locked her room door. "You little…ok no, calm down and think…what would dad do?"

She eyed the room carefully; the very entity of another man claiming her as his own made her blood boil and her muscles tense up. She may not be the strongest Irken in the galaxy but when she got mad or worse…pissed, you could expect planets destruction without a second's uncertainty.

Atop the room held a small air duct that could conceivably let her lithe body through its death grip tight walls. Cari stood reluctantly and stretched towards the small air duct but alas it was bolted shut with higher technology, as one would say. Or in terms she was more comfortable with, Irken technology, damn Irkens.

Seeing as escape was going to be futile, Cari sat down in a huff and strained her back to turn at an uncomfortable angle and reach her PAK. Ben was smart, but he was also arrogant and overzealous. In such thought, he must've assumed he'd received the upper hand of the day but boy how he was wrong. True, he probably disabled the features on Zim and Iris's PAKs so defending themselves would also prove to be much difficulty.

Thoughts sped through Cari's head as she hesitantly hovered her clawed green finger over the tiny dark grey dot at the top of her PAK that would end it all. Not just for her though, Zim had spent many vast, agonizing hours a few months ago to make sure if one went down we'd all go down.

Our life source was dependent on each and every one of us but in truth it lied in the hands of one pissed off teenager. What could go wrong?

Her finger hovered for another moment before a loud noise was heard out in the damp, disgusting hallways that made up this pathetic piece of Irken scrap metal. A cry of pain was heard next and an inaudible yell. Maybe an order being emphasized or maybe a small quarrel braking out between 'evil master mind' and his assailant or in this case just Nina, there was doubt she'd like to be called anything else.

"Why'd you do it?!" We're the first words audible to Cari's sensitive antenna. It sounded like a ruff, intimidating voice that held no power behind it. Almost like a bluff in the game of poker. The annoyingness of it made Cari want to gnash her teeth together and blow up the whole galaxy. She wasn't used to getting mad about anything really, but when she was no one BUT Zim could calm her down. Even if she was mad at the said person.

Another shout of pain was heard and a groan of what sounded like many past regrets and thoughts spilling out through one sick, putrid emotion…Pain. At times you could call such emotion a blessing in disguise other times it was just to watch the very life of the victim in front of you bleed away for your own pleasurable entertainment. One word could be known for such an emotion, vile.

"Because I wasn't about to leave such a beautiful child to the hands of a bloodthirsty, abusive madman that only knew perfection and pain!" Another all too familiar voice yowled back through an agonizing scream.

"How dare you talk about your Tallest in such a foul way? You pathetic defect, you're not even Irken anymore!" Another yowl was heard and more pants and whimpers of excessive pain. "You were stupid, you dumbass, you could've lived a peaceful life with the 'woman of your dreams' and maybe had a smeet of your own! But NOOOOO, you had to kidnap the most important smeet in the world. And to think you actually thought you'd get away with it. Didn't you?" Ben accused as a horrible choking sound was being heard.

"Answer me, defect!"

"I got away with it for fifteen years, I knew this would happen eventually but as long as MY baby was unharmed and happy then I could care less about what happens to me." The other voice rasped out. It was known by now to be the voice of Zim. Every agonizing scream could tell you that from hundreds of miles away.

More teeth gnashing was present as Cari clenched and unclenched her balled up fists. By now her palms were living in a flood of her plasma as it leaked out of precious life sources. This was all her fault, if only she'd actually have listened to her father then maybe, just maybe none of this tasteless violence would be happening.

Now was not the time to sulk it was the time to do something and _fight back_. The once oppressive feeling deep within her gut soon turned to one of pure, utter, blind rage. She felt her muscles bunching again as he right eye twitched through the water spilling out of them. Crying was forbidden in the Irken world so she felt pathetic but to hear her dad _cry out in pain_ was too much to bear. It was time to act.

"Voice thrower where are you, please, please, please be here." She silently muttered to herself as she pressed buttons on her PAK. Zim taught her well and she was his evil little genius. Many times her skills pulled her through the difficulties in life making her father's face shine with pride but she wasn't doing it for her father. She too had a feeling something like this would come up in the course of her life span and she was NOT about to sit around and let this shit happen. She was out for blood and only blood.

A small fist pump sliced through the dense air as she found said device in her PAK and pulled it out immediately to check its functions. "Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you right now Zim! One reason!" Ben howled from the other side of the door. A loud crack was applied to the side of Zim's facing letting us all guess he was hit with something, punched or slapped but slapping seemed so pathetic and degrading.

A small whimper was heard as a body (Guessing to be Zim's) collided with the floor. The shot applied to Zim's chest earlier was one of a stun gun almost. It's rare in the Irken Empire to be used but in this case Ben wanted Zim to just shut the fuck up. The stun gun sent out a small electrical current that passed through all of Zim's body and sent his nerves haywire so he'd fall unconscious. Also depending on the range of the fire time, there could be an obvious oozing mark where the hit was applied to fragile, tough Irken skin. If you knew how to brake the skin then it was easier than using a hot butter knife to cut butter into millions of pieces but if you haven't the slightest clue about how to engrave your mark into and Irkens skin then they are potentially invincible to your forces of attack.

"Well Zim!" Ben screeched.

"Because, if you killed me you'd be the tallest's next main target for stealing their kill." Zim rasped back as his burning body pressed against the cold metal wall. The coolness brought relief to the pounding and aching incisions but the burning of locked up muscles could not be soothed so easily.

Back in Cari's moment, she had already gotten the device up and running and jumped up to cling to the air duct. She set the device to Nina's voice and pushed it to her lips and to the air ducts metal exterior. "Ben, Cari's escaped! No bio signature from her room, I repeat she's escaped!" Nina's voice came out the other ends of the air duct making it sound like a personal announcement. Perfect.

"WHAT! That's impossible!" Ben shouted, "I'll be back." He hissed to a probably unconscious Zim before kicking down Cari's door. He stalked through the currently dark room checking every corner as Cari skillfully scaled the roof making sure to hid deep within the shadows. The only light emanating off her body was the dim glow of her blue PAK. This wasn't a problem however knowing that Irkens can't see anything above them without tilting their heads up. That's why the antenna was created to warn them of a possible threat. However in this case Ben wasn't focusing on a threat, he was focused on finding the 'escapee'.

Behind Ben the door slowly creaked shut with an agonizing noise. He spun around to see nothing but darkness now. "Where are you Princess Rae, I know you're still in here." He growled. This only further aggravated her. Her name was Cari and dammit that's how it was going to stay!

"You do realize real Irkens can see in the dark right?" Ben snickered looking directly into Cari's bloodthirsty eyes.

"I know that perfectly well, what you don't know is the horrible mistake you've just made." Cari grinned disturbingly at him and twisted her body around so she was hanging above him while drool dripped out of her mouth. If no one knew any better they'd call her an insane cannibal with rabies.

Her mouth was still stationed in a grin as Ben cringed under the saliva hitting his face. When it started to burn he jumped backwards and placed a hand over the burn spot. "What the hell is in that stuff!" Ben yelled.

"Water." Cari grinned back feeling her mouth burning but she didn't care. She wanted him to suffer.

"Water…?" He inquired as Cari jumped from the roof and landed in front of the door. She cracked her knuckles and removed her black gloves she was using for the stealth project. Under the gloves revealed three razor sharp talons that clenched together in a fighting position of their own.

She lunged at Ben as sliced open the skin on his unprotected chest. He was just in a regular black shirt now so this was going to be fun.

Ben yowled in frustration and pain as he stumbled backwards onto the bed. "I know the secret to which my parents really are Ben; you can't run from the truth forever." She hissed at him.

"What are you speaking of you crazy bitch!" He screamed back as she sliced open the skin on his face next.

"Purple is NOT my father and Elena was NOT my mother. You idiots didn't think I'd really figure it out did you? And honestly you were right but once Iris reentered Zim's life I discovered the truth from braking into my dad's lab. I took samples of my DNA Ben, I know how I came to be, I know who my real parents are the only thing I don't know is why? Why did you take that from my mom? Why couldn't you just let all of us be happy?" She yelled and gripped Ben's neck.

"Your mother was a wanted criminal you idiot, and your father was no better, I did what I did to please my tallest and to get back at them for what they'd done to me. I swore that they'd pay and oh how they did. They don't even know that you are theirs." Ben spat and slapped her across the face with his own sharp claws.

She flung back with a yowl of pain right as the doors burst open. Nina was standing there dragging a bloody Zim behind her. He was still alive from what Cari could tell but he'd definitely need some serious medical attention.

"No one copy's my VOICE!" Nina screamed and grabbed Cari by the neck. "If the tallest didn't want you I'd kill you myself!" She screamed again before throwing Cari to the ground next to Zim.

"Dad…?" Cari whispered hoarsely. He looked horrible, bloody, bruised, sweaty, beaten, pale…all of the above.

Zim cracked open his eye with extreme effort and managed to give her a small reassuring smile that made him dizzy from the effort. "Hey big girl." He rasped out and flinched when Cari gently grabbed his hand.

"Let that be a warning Rae, don't ever attack us again or harsher punishments will be applied." Ben snapped and pushed a hand against his bleeding wounds.

As soon as he said that Nina roughly snatched Zim away from Cari by his leg and drug him out of the room down the hall. He moaned in pain and pathetically reached his hand out towards his daughter who was no becoming a small dot.

Cari felt horrible again. The plan went haywire as soon as it started. In fact, she didn't really have a plan she just wanted to get Ben away from Zim. It worked for the time being but who knew how long it'd be before Ben took out his pent up anger on poor Zim again. Or even Iris who only worried Cari more because she was the only one who knew Iris's secret. Iris had trusted it with her a few days back crushing her on the inside but also making her excited.

So as all my amazing readers are thinking right now, "What's her secret and who's Cari's real parents?"

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**A/N: OOOOOO who do you guys think the secret is? And who do you think Cari's parents are, her real ones haha. Well this is an out of the blue twist I just added here so now I have to replan the whole freaking sorry ='( oh well this one is more interesting anyways hahaha. please review and tell me what your guesses are or what ever you want to say and HOOORRRAAAYYY I'm back but since school has started expect updates every weekend. I have a lot of work during the week so I am not available until the weekends so that is when you should expect and update!**

**PLEASE REVIEW DAMMIT!**

**~hahah BAD ASS BRADY!**


	9. Part one of the truth revealed

**A/N: And I'm back. here's chapter 8, enjoy and review thanks and bye**

**~Bad ass brady**

**I own nothing bye.**

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It's been three months since Zim, Cari, and Iris were taken from Earth. Iris is resting in the room she was issued with Zim lying next to her practically dead. He was told that he wasn't allowed to see Cari anymore and it nearly killed him. Iris tried to make him feel better but he would hardly budge from the spot he was in, let alone look at her.

"Zim…please honey get up and do something." Iris said sadly as she rolled over to lay her head on Zim's chest. His only answer was a small grunt that Iris knew as a dismissive technique. "Zim…please…"

He still didn't budge only making her even more worried, "What do I have to do to get you to do something…anything?" In response he stared at the roof and gently ran his hand along Iris's back in a way to comfort her.

"They took my baby away from me…"He whimpered for the thousandth time that hour.

"I know Zim, but there's nothing we can do now." Iris whispered back feeling the sorrow seeping out of Zim's body language. She knew he was still slightly crying from the loss of something so important to him but she kept trying to tell him it wasn't the end of the world.

Zim buried his face in his lover's neck and wrapped his arm around her. She'd still get romantic moments with him even if Cari was gone but they never lasted long so this was a very rare experience for Iris.

Zim applied tiny nips to Iris's neck before kissing them gently and snuggling in closer to her. Iris pulled away from his warmth and nuzzled his face gently. He gave her a very small smile before kissing her gently and staying that way for a short amount of time. He pulled away slightly disappointing Iris until she realized their cell door was opening.

Iris inched closer to Zim upon seeing Ben enter the room grimly. "You, come with me." He pointed to Zim making Iris's eyes widen. She grabbed onto Zim protectively and worriedly stared at him.

"I'll be ok." He whispered to her and slid out of the uncomfortable bed. Iris was still clamping onto Zim's arm like it was a life line making Ben sigh in irritation. "I promise." He whispered again and leaned down to quickly kiss her.

"Ok break it up, come with me NOW Zim." Ben snapped making Iris growl at him. Zim softly pulled his arm out of Iris's death grip and walked confidently over to Ben, even though he did have a slight limp and couldn't hear well out of his left antenna.

Ben led Zim down a hallway until they reached the very last bedroom door making him slightly nervous. He really didn't want someone touching him right now. "She won't eat and refuses to talk or even look at anyone. You either fix her or I'm going to kill you." Ben growled and slid the door open.

Cari was lying down on the bed looking like a sack of bones and slightly wheezing. "Cari, I brought a friend." Ben said harshly and shoved Zim in there.

He was overjoyed to see his baby again but worry soon came over him when he saw just how skinny she was. "Fix her." Ben demanded before shutting the door and locking it behind himself.

"Car…baby what have you gotten yourself into?" He whispered seeing the various cuts on her forearms and legs. She didn't even budge making Zim a little worried. "Cari, sweetheart…are you awake?"

Again no answer. So Zim crawled into the small bed with her and a little too easily hauled her into his lap. "I want my daddy!" She finally wailed and started cry harshly while not opening her eyes.

"Shhh, I know honey I know. Daddy's here, Shhh." Zim soothed and slowly rocked her side to side. She continued to cry and choke out small coughs as Zim held her and whispered comforting things into her antenna. "Both mommy and daddy are ok. Mom misses you very much and is trying to find a way to see too. We're both comfortable and taken care of where we're being held and before you know it, you will too."

She weakly nodded and laid her head on Zim's chest. He missed this kind of contact between him and his daughter but there was no going back now.

After about two hours of shushing and rocking Cari fell asleep and woke up a few hours later to see Zim still cradling her and staring off into space. "Daddy?" She asked groggily and reached up to his face like she used to when she was a baby.

"Hi sweetie, are you feeling a little bit better?" Zim asked gently while pressing his forehead against the side of her head. She nodded feebly and snuggled in closer to her father's warmth. "Then can you do daddy a huge favor?"

"Yeah…"

"Thank you; I want you to eat something for me. You don't look very good and not eating isn't going to help anyone."

"I don't want to eat." She pouted and glared at the food around her.

"But I need you to eat."

"No," She argued and crossed her arms in hate. Zim sighed and rolled his eyes before grabbing a small nacho chip and holding it up in front of her.

"Then I'm going to." He teased and slowly ate the chip making sure to act like it was extremely good.

"How could you eat that after what they did to us?" She hissed as he grabbed another chip.

"Because I'm trying to stay big and strong for my baby girl, just like I need her to do for me." Zim spoke gently and held another chip up. Cari looked at it thoughtfully before looking down at her hands.

In an attempt to make her laugh Zim made air plane noises and started 'flying' the chips towards Cari's mouth. She watched him for a second before breaking out into a small fit of laughter.

"Dad, I'm not a kid anymore." She groaned making him stop the noises.

"Yeah but you're my kid, and I wanted to hear you laugh again." He said with a small smirk, "I'm going to keep doing it until you eaaaatttttt…." He continued to make the noises with a small smile at the memories he had of this back about ten or eleven years ago.

Cari smiled gently before Zim gave her the chip that she ate with a small groan of appreciation. Her antenna slightly perked up as she looked around for the rest of the chips.

Zim noticed this and handed her the small basket of nachos before kissing her forehead and rubbing his hand up and down her back soothingly. "Thank you." He smiled.

Cari hungrily dug into the beautiful food in front of her and finished it off with in minutes. Zim handed her another thing of them and eyed the scratches on her arms and legs. "Do you wanna explain those to me now?" He asked patiently as she looked at them in shame.

"I was trying to escape to you and mom but I fell back through the vent and scratched myself up." She answered and pointed to the large hole in her vent.

"You really are my child." He sighed and smiled at her, "That's why I love you."

"I'm sorry for what I said that day dad, I didn't mean it, not one word." She said and hugged him around his shoulders achingly.

"I know you didn't and I'm not mad about it. I felt bad at the fact that I yelled at you back. So let's forget the past and think about now ok?"

"I love you dad." She muttered before once again resting her head on his chest and munching on his chips.

"Now honey, I can't stay here much longer. Ben's already come twice demanding that I get you to eat and hurry up and stuff. So can you promise me something?" Zim asked upon hearing footsteps.

"Mmmhmm." She answered through a mouthful of chips.

"Please eat, and get better for daddy. I love you very much and always remember that. You've given me the best parenthood a guy could ask for and no matter what people say remember that you are my daughter and you always will be. I love you car. I love you very, very, very much and I'm sorry."

"You're talking like you're about to die dad." Cari said in slight panic.

"Don't freak out sweetie but we're never going to see each other again after this. Your real father is going to have some words with your mother and I and no one will know that we even existed. I didn't want to end it this way but I want you to know this is the last time I'm ever going to see you again." Zim said as some tears leaked out of his eyes.

"I love you too dad," She said with low antenna. She was now very scared and flustered that the man she was raised by was officially about to leave her life forever. She reached up and kissed his cheek a few times right as the door opened up.

"Good you got her to eat something. Now come on, play time is over." Ben hissed and viciously ripped Zim away from Cari.

"I love you baby," Zim mouthed as he was drug out of the room. "Please don't ever forget me and I won't ever forget you." He whispered before making a small heart shape at her.

"I love you too dad…and I won't, I promise." She said as more tears flowed out of her eyes.

Within seconds Zim disappeared around the corner letting Cari cry in peace but she vowed to keep her promise and become a strong and healthy young woman.

Iris's POV.

While Zim was gone I banged on the door until Nina appeared in front of it, "What now! You interrupted TV time!?" She yelled angrily.

"I-I need to go to the medical bay again, immediately." I said hurriedly and gave her a serious look.

"What is it this time?" She asked in a bored tone seeing as Iris was doing this almost every week once Zim was asleep or just unconscious.

"The same reason, please Nina." I whispered back in agony. I need to see the doctor.

"Does he know you're doing this?" Nina asked and leaned against the door with a sporadic sigh.

"No, it's for the best, he'd just be worrying the whole time if he knew I was sick." Iris muttered and clutched her sides before clenching her teeth in agonizing pain, "Please Nina."

"Look, I don't like you, in fact…I hate you, I hate everything about you, you're pathetic, a show off, cocky and many more," She growled before another on cue sigh slipped past her gnarly fangs, "But this situation isn't just about you anymore…so follow me."

"Thank you oh Irk thank you, and please if he comes back before I am don't tell him." Iris said as she broke out into a cold sweat. The pain was etching into her abdomen now and she was biting back shrieks of agony.

"Yeah whatever, hurry up." Nina hissed before leading her down a short hall way to a white door, "Hey Tab, she's back."

Tab was an Irken with large orange eyes. She always wore deep black clothing to go along with her pumpkin shaped antenna. It always reminded me of Eve from the tallest trials making me want to rip her face off but if I kept my cool I could do this.

"Iris? Back already?" Tab said with a small grin, "Bring her on in."

"See you around dumbass." Nina hissed in my antenna before roughly shoving me into the infirmary.

"How long has it been happening now?" Tab asked and started giving my body a much needed check out.

"Today marks the fourth month." I groaned back and lay down. I just wanted this whole ordeal to be over.

"Alright, well then this is normal, does Zim know that you're sick with this?" Tab asked and grabbed some gel that I knew soothed sore muscles and worked as an aspirin on aching wounds.

"No, only Cari does, actually only the females aboard this ship know about it, unless Nina told Ben, he hasn't been beating Zim and me as much lately, maybe that helped it." I said uneasily and groaned as another wave of pain shot through my body.

"I think you should be telling him soon. He needs to be able to protect you until the sickness passes." Tab suggested as she rubbed the soothing gel on my aching back and sides.

"NO! He mustn't know!" I snapped and shot to my feet. I grabbed Tabs collar and glared into her un afraid eyes. I normally acted like this….he…he… "Don't say anything about it to anyone. When I am ready I will share my weaknesses understand?"

"You're really putting yourself in the deep end dear, but you seem to know what you're doing, has this happened before?"

"It's not something I want to talk about, the last time I was in this state I lost something very important to me." I hissed back and dropped her to the ground.

"Ohhh, I'm sorry, I should've just kept my mouth shut. Well take this bottle with you to the room, the pains only going to get worse and it's going to happen almost every day not every week now. So apply this gently to the aching parts of your body every ten hours or when needed. Come and see me again sometimes next week so I can check and see if everything's going well with your health."

"Thank you Tab, I really owe you one." I sighed and snatched the bottle from her hands carefully.

"Of course, it's not every day an Irken-,"

"Don't say it!" I snapped making her shut up almost immediately. She nodded slowly registering my fear on the subject and showed me out of the room.

'I need to tell Zim…I can't keep this from him forever, but what will happen if I do? He might go crazy and get himself killed trying to protect me. No I'll keep it to myself for now.' I thought with a concentrated look as Nina escorted me back to my bedroom. She must be slightly worried too which is hard to believe but women understand each other at this time so it isn't unnormal for a woman to do anything in their power to help soothe the sickness.

"Do you need anything before I go?" Nina asked impatiently once we reached the bedroom doors.

"No…I think I'll be alright. This isn't going to work anyways. The tallest will kill Zim and me before…" I whispered and put my face in my hands.

"I know who Cari's real parents are." Nina said out of the blue.

"Tallest purple and Miss Elena right?" I asked in confusion.

"No, but I'd rather not talk about this right now. For now, I'll help watch over you, but let's get this straight right now. I DO NOT like you, at all. I hate you but women must stick together when this happens. It's been a while since any Irken has received this sickness, I think of it as a blessing though."

"A blessing for what?" I grumbled and hugged myself in discomfort.

"The fact that I can imagine the look on Zim's face as soon as you tell him." Nina grinned thinking of the horror that would skip across his expression.

"Tell Zim about what?" A voice asked from down the hall. I snapped my head up to see Zim limping down the hall with Ben shoving him every few seconds to get him to keep walking.

"Oh well Iris-," Nina started casually until I slapped a hand over her mouth.

"About how we are going to umm…bargain with the tallest's for our lives." I said with a dry mouth. Everyone was looking at me suspiciously as Zim cocked an eyebrow at me and eyed the tube in my hand. "I uhh, found this. Maybe we can make you less sore when we go to bed tonight?" I offered up.

Zim gave me a suspicious look before hesitantly nodding and walking into our room. "You're lying." Ben accused as Nina started leading me back into the room as well.

"I am not." I spat back. Ben glared and lifted his hand to slap me when Nina shot her hand out and grabbed his angrily.

"Don't touch her." She snapped.

"What…why? You love violence." Ben said back in confusion.

"Because that's my job now get your ass out of here and I'll lock them up." Nina shouted back. Ben cringed at the rude remark and glared at her as he stormed down the hall way with clenched fists.

"Thank you," I whispered to her.

"Don't mention it…seriously. Remember just call me on your PAK if you need anything…anything at all." She grumbled before slamming the door in my face and locking it.

"Do you want to tell me what that was about now?" Zim groaned as he settled down on the bed.

"What are you talking about? I got this for your sore muscles." I said with a fake uncomfortable laugh.

"Ooookkkk, I don't know why you're lying to me but you must have good reason so I won't pressure you about it." Zim shrugged giving her a look that made me guilty.

"Zim…I-I uhh…" Why in Irk's name was this so hard to talk about!?

"What?" Zim asked seeing my distress.

"Umm…Well a few months ago when we…when we, you know what never mind. This is an awkward conversation that I am done with." I growled and crossed my arms angrily.

"No, Iris tell me what's going on?" Zim said back and sat up to give me a concerned look.

"I…I don't want to die." I lied again hoping he'd buy it.

"So how does a few months ago when we; have to do with not wanting to die?" Dammit! Why'd he have to do this to me?

"Nothing, I told you now back off." I growled and shot him a look that made him flinch.

"I'm just trying to help."

"Well you're not helping, you're just adding to the stress of having to-," I caught myself before I spit out the truth and felt my cheeks heat up in embarrassment.

"What are you talking about Iris? You're kind of freaking me out." Zim whispered and wrapped his arms around my waist.

Out of pure instinct I pulled away and glared at him as my body got itself into an attack position. He stared at me with a worried look and put his hands up in the air like he was being caught by the earth police.

"Iris, calm down. I'm not going to hurt you." He whispered again with wide eyes. I knew he was annoyed with me but he'd never admit it. He never did unless I made him snap.

Zim rolled onto his back spread out showing all his vulnerable points to me in a form of submission. Irkens were much like animals in a way but no one really submitted to anything anymore but the tallest. This was almost rare but I knew he was doing this so I'd calm down.

I relaxed slightly now feeling guilty that I was even in that position with someone that I love. But he can't know, he just can't I wasn't ready for that. God I was having a mental break down.

"I-I'm tired, I'm going to lie down…" I said hesitantly and walked to the other bed seeing as I knew Zim was going to pressure me about this.

"Did I do something?" Zim asked as I laid down in the other bed.

"No," I mumbled and looked down at my hands.

I felt Zim slide into the bed with me but before I could he wrapped his arms around my waist and pinned me down. "Than what's gotten into you, you've never been so…anti Zim." He asked gently as he gave me a serious unnerving look.

"It's nothing that concerns you." I lied again and looked away.

"If it has to do with you then it does concern me. Please talk to me about it."

"This is all your fault! I never should've relocated you. It's probably my fault we were found too. I don't want to talk about this anymore Zim so please just shut up!" His eyes widened at my ferocity and he sent me an understanding look.

"I don't know what the, my fault is but it probably was my fault if I know you. And it's not your fault we were caught Iris. Please don't blame yourself…please?"

"I don't know who to blame anymore." I growled and turned my head away from him seeing as she was pinning me down so I couldn't move.

"Well you can blame me if you feel you need to." Zim said with a small smirk.

"Fine, it's all your fault, now about your sore muscles…"

"I'm not going to pressure you but you know that stuff isn't going to help my sore muscles any more than one of your massages does." He said with a small hinted laugh.

"What you want a massage now?"

"Maybe…" He said with puppy dog eyes. God this was going to be a long night.

* * *

**A/N: What do you think the secret is, review and tell me! Until next time.**

**C ya**

**~Bad ass brady**


	10. The Past

**A/N: Here's the next chapter! Iz hopes you enjoy yes! Haha, yessssss well anyways please review and tell me what you think yes! YES YES YEEESSSSS!**

**Anyways, updates fridays hope you like and I'll see you later byyyee**

**I OWN NOTHING**

**~Bad ass brady**

* * *

16 and ½ years prior.

Two explicitly tall men walked into the dim room looking like they meant business. Their body language was hostile and demanding but also in worry and wonder. The way their backs slouched showed the amount of stress they were under as the bags under their large orbs for eyes showed their lack of sleep.

Two very short soldiers guarding the room stood at attention seeing as the higher power was walking towards them. Both of them while shaking in fear, saluted to the ones they called leaders and lowered their sharp, pointy, zappy weapons.

One of the taller men walked up to a soldier in purple armor with a red soldier symbol on his chest plate. All of it was made of vibrainium thus causing it to be impenetrable but also extremely heavy. Normally the amazing metal was light weight and very durable but at said location the rare metal was being held on made the gravity on the material five times heavier. It was almost like carrying around ten, full booked, high school students back packs, and let me tell you damn does that hurt, even one gives my shoulders pain =(.

The tall man carefully inspected the armor with much distaste before speaking in a serious tone, "Needs more red, the purple just isn't working out for me."

"Y-Yes sir." The soldier said back and saluted once again to the man holding all of the respect.

The second tall man was busy inspecting the second soldier wearing a very bright red with a purple Irken soldier symbol on the chest plate. He looked more professional and experienced compared to the newbie across from him.

"Hmmm, purple…it needs more purple, Irk and to think we hired un-professional's!" The man howled in the unblinking soldiers face.

Both men turned towards each other nodding before eyeing the soldier next to their counterpart. They switched sides and now started smiling in glee at the two short men in front of them, "Perfect, you sir are a handsome fellow, not as handsome as me of course but you'll get there…never." Both tall men said in unison.

They continued into the now unguarded room and clicked a button letting the maroon door hiss shut behind them. Outside the soldiers looked at each other with cocked eye brows, "Was that supposed to be a compliment or an insult?" The newbie asked feeling utterly lost.

"Trust me son, just play along with it and agree to whatever they say, it'll get you farther in life." The older one said while slowly shaking his head back and forth as he stared into the distance as if exploring a long ago memory.

Inside the dim room the tallest stood impatiently watching mostly the female scientists running around in fear of the 'Almighty Tallest' being in their manifestation. "Kayla!" Red screamed out loudly.

All the females in the room halted at once as one pink eyed Irken shakily saluted to her leader. "Show us the eggs."

"B-but sir, the eggs are hardly even six months old yet..." The one known as Kayla stuttered as she felt a distaining feeling wash over her.

"Does it look like we care, show us our smeets!" Purple shouted and crossed his arms in a huff. Kayla squeaked and shielded her face with the brown clip board she was holding in fear that they'd strike her down for not listening to orders.

"Yes my Tallest," She said finally feeling her life being threatened. She hurried through the crowd of female scientists and stopped at two small chambers with a Red and a Purple button on it.

She feebly pushed both buttons and shrank back in fear as her tallest's shoved her aside to see what was happening. Two tubes that seeming blended in with the ground suddenly twisted and hissed letting a white cloud of cold steam puff out as it rose up to eye sight level.

Red pressed his face against the glass to see the very tiny almost palm sized fetuses growing inside the tubes. Purple was copying his brother's notion and staring into the tube that held his small child. One was slightly wriggling while the other lay still in the disgusting pink gel like liquid.

"Aww mine's sleeping, good girl Rae." Purple commented and placed his clawed hand onto the glass with a small smile on his face. Behind him Kayla stared at the fetus in sheer and utter horror. She looked over at her Co-workers watching all the color draining from their faces too.

"Yes my tallest, this one is usually up and playing a lot during the day. She likes to rest around this time." A brave soul near the back of the room said quickly making a swift hand motion telling his peers to follow his lead.

"Good, she's already a fighter." Red commented and smiled at his own tiny child. The two tallest's nodded to each other before stretching out their tired limbs and walking up to a still shaking Kayla.

"Good work Kayla, you get a raise!" Purple squealed making Kayla almost smile if it weren't for the shock.

"But not until both children are born successfully." Red growled and pushed purple towards the exits.

"Yes my tallest's you won't be let down!" Kayla shouted after them as they exited the room with a stiff, proud posture. "WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO!" Kayla suddenly screamed and fell onto her knees.

"If either of the Tallest finds out Rea is dead then we're dead…SOMEONE THINK OF SOMETHING!" Another small woman screamed.

"There must be a donor somewhere right, someone else HAS to be pregnant!"

"I might know someone who knows a pregnant woman with the same birthing time!" A random red eyed Irken in the back piped up.

"Who!?" Kayla screeched in desperation.

"Ben! Ben will know!" The same Irken shouted in the same coil of fear as everyone else. "Call him, call him now! He's our only hope!"

More Irkens rushed around and suddenly a large computer screen started dialing an unknown number. The person answering on the other end didn't seem too happy about being disturbed. He wasn't wearing a shirt for one, and he was crossing his arms while glaring at the screen from inside his house to finish everything off.

"What, I'm busy?" He hissed darkly and glared at the silent Irkens for a moment.

"Ben, we need your help. Something's happened to Tallest purple's child, Rae, she's dead and we need a donor or we're all fucked." Kayla said hurriedly.

"No, you're fucked, I'm safe." Ben spat back and continued to glare at her.

"You know just as much as I do that Tallest Purple will take out his anger, sorrow and jealousy towards his still breathing brother's child on the whole planet of Irk, you and I both know it well." Kayla growled back and brushed off her long white lab coat. She pulled the goggles up from her eyes and placed them on her forehead to equally glare at Ben until he sighed in irritation.

"I'll be over soon." He grumbled cutting the transmition. All Irkens in the room let out a sigh of relief and wiped their sweaty foreheads. They were so not ready to have their antenna slowly pulled out and eaten in front of them.

Back over at Ben's house, he was pulling a shirt on and closing the door to the room he was in. Grumbling to himself angrily he walked out to his air ship and typed in a few names. One he spotted intrigued him immensely seeing as he loathed this person. He hated everyone, especially Iris, but he hated this one the most.

"Ok, but are you preggers?" He asked himself as he typed more things in on his digital computer screen. It came up with various amounts of data and DNA samples making him smile inwardly. He knew exactly where he was going next.

He started the air ship with a simple command making it shut its protective glass doors and put the piece of junk on auto pilot. "To the hidden canyons." He ordered making the ship fly faster in the west direction.

Many scenes played out before Ben's eyes, he was staring out the pilot window and checking out his donors file. He knew she was pregnant but he didn't know if her mate was with her. If he was then there was sure to be a fight and usually an adrenaline pumped male protecting his pregnant mate would stop at nothing to protect her.

A light blue screen appeared in front of his vision showing him pictures, videos, criminal records, anything that could be of use to know just what he was once again going up against. He growled at a few select pictures that popped up and gagged at others. What bothered him the most was the reports of the times they…did things and the exact moment when the working seed attached to the egg in the female partners uterus. It disgusted him to a certain level until he X'd out of most the 'personal' files on her and her mate.

He remembered every sick happy moment they'd have when they were with each other and how dull and unhappy they were without each other. He hated them; for what they did, for who they are, for loving each other…he reviled them for any reason he could and couldn't think of. He even hated the fact that he helped them meet! It was nauseating.

More files came up on the male partner making Ben look at them in confusion, 'Last seen leaving his mate to work with female assassin for revenge.' That made no sense. They were still together as far as he knew. It didn't matter to him though; if he was gone then she'd be an easy 'kill'.

'I should probably research pregnant female carriers.' Ben thought to himself and silently commanded his PAK to research everything it could find in its data bases to help him through this 'pregnancy'. He'd never even heard of it. Usually on Irk, there were only birthing hatcheries and labs, never an actual carrier.

'The pregnant female partner is expected to be in constant pain of cramps, raging hormones, cravings, the child kicking etc. When the female carrier is like this her mate is stuck to her like they're conjoined at the hip. The male will do anything and everything to make his mate happy and satisfied even if it means lack of sleep. If the female carrier is alone with no male to protect her, she is more paranoid, dangerous, angry, moody, hungry, protective, aware and very, very alert. Also side effects can be pain from loss of a mate and stress, longer more painful cramps, constant feeling of being cold, loneliness, weakness, lack of sleep etc.'

'Hmm interesting, I wonder if these are true with her…' Ben pondered as the Hidden Canyons came into view…well as much view as you could get, whence the 'Hidden' in Hidden Canyons.

The dust red canyons came into perspective about ten minutes in, Ben's time, later. A slow melancholy grin spread across his features as he grabbed the cruisers controls and stopped auto pilot. The ship slightly jerked once auto pilot was off but it didn't faze Ben. He continued to gently move his finger along the controlling pad to slowly and surely bring the ship down in a quiet, stealthy fashion.

The strange metal trees around his cruiser moved so it would fit better letting Ben land smoothly. They re-surrounded his cruiser upon impact and stayed there keeping the vehicle almost completely cloaked from sight.

This pleased him greatly seeing as he wouldn't be spotted by spy cameras and shot out, well his ship wouldn't anyway, he was a different story. To avoid further damage from this female, Ben walked back to his cruiser and elbowed aside compartment on the exterior metal.

The exterior metal slid down revealing a small opening containing various supplies and weapons, you always had to be prepared right? Yeah, well this guy…SUPER prepared.

Ben reached into the opening and grabbed a small wrist watch before placing it on his left wrist. He then continued to shut the exposed compartment of his ship and locked with a simple snap of his fingers.

The 'woods' were eerie, even if they were just metal twigs called trees here on Irk. Not caring, Ben plowed through them and got into a range where stealth would probably be a really good idea.

'Should I go into stealth mode and look for her or should I go out in the open and flush her out by destroying all her weapons. She'd come out an attack me I'm sure of it, unless her mate is still with her and that file lied…damn files.' Ben argued with himself as he crouched behind a 'bush.'

He glared out into the open knowing very well weapons were in every corner and behind every turn. Processing his thoughts ben grabbed a small metal tree branch and gazed at it for a moment before an idea struck him.

He pressed a small button on the side of his wrist watch making a small metal centipede looking thing shoot out of it and up his arm. It crawled onto his neck before circling a pumping vein and lifting it's fangs up.

Ben let out a small hiss of pain at the impact of the sharp metal pieces stabbing into his vein. It felt like two tiny needles that never left until a stupid button was clicked removing and killing the small metal bug. It was almost like a onetime use.

Settling the urge to smack the bug he waited until a burning sensation worked its way into his left eye. The burning made him blink and tear up profusely until it settled down to just a pounding heat.

A small red screen appeared in his left eyes vision letting him aim at things and work his computer through brain waves and eye movements. 'Zero in on any unseen security devices.' He silently commanded waiting as a small red target flitted across his eye before showing many red unseen lines hiding all over the territory.

"So you thought you could outsmart me did ya?" He growled quietly making a small alien bird scream and fly out into the open. The surprise made him jump but the main reason for jumping in shock was as soon as the bird flew into the territory it vaporized…within seconds it was just gone. Not even any ashes!

He gulped before scanning any other potential threats. Just a few lasers, knifes, guns, vaporizers, alarms and many other things were located…nothing big!

Ben smiled at the thought of such a _simple_ challenge before standing and pressing another button on his wrist watch. This time however, a metal armor erupted from said wrist watch and formed perfectly around his masculine body. It traveled in sections and made a tiny clicking noise with every section it took on. From the chest to the legs to the arms and finally ending at the head.

A black Irken symbol was portrayed on the chest plate as his red PAK lit up in the back to symbolize it was protected by a see through glass like, impenetrable bubble and ready for action. He made it so his head was unprotected not feeling the need to use it against such a frail hazard.

Next was the cloaking device that covered his whole body, armor or not. It turned him invisible so that he could blend with his surroundings and stay out of sight. The last thing to do was lower the temperature of his body so no good heat sensors picked up his scent.

Now all that was left to do was survive the simple training exercise. While following his eye map, Ben quickly flipped, stretched, bent and crawled through all the danger zone lines until he was near the last part of them.

Taking a small sigh he jumped up and flipped over the last two danger zone lines before steadily landing on his feet and letting out a grunt of ease. 'This is too easy; she knows I'm here…' Ben theorized seeing as the building door was cracked open and the lights inside were on. How predictable.

Not really caring Ben walked into the front door and stalked down the hallways with his cloaking devices still on. Two Irkens were perched at the end of the hall in a small hammock like thing for break. 'Or they just weren't watching out for an intruder.' Ben grumbled inwardly while eavesdropping into the soldiers conversation.

"How far along is she now?" One small green eyed male asked.

"Six months," The other yellow eyed male responded before taking a large chug of his coffee. They both looked pretty tired.

"So is she going to take maternity leave?"

"Brad, do you honestly think that she is going to take maternity leave, I mean come on she never stops working, it's always one thing or the other!"

"Yeah but she's been in lots of pain lately. With her mate gone an all she's left unguarded to protect the unborn child on her own. She's been seriously paranoid lately and tries to maul anyone coming near her." Brad answered back to the small yellow eyed Irken.

"I know! I snuck up on her a few days ago to see if maybe I could cheer her up but I hardly got twenty feet away from her before she pointed a blaster at me and said take one step closer and I'll blow your brains out. I was wearing my cloaking device and she was turned around…how does she do it!"

"Probably the way she was raised, Pen told me she's been having to see the medical bay a lot more now complaining about pain, cramps, agony…I really feel for the girl." Brad explained with wide eyes.

Ben nodded liking the information he was receiving before continuing on down a long hall way with many rooms labeled on it. When he heard something crash up against a wall and a groan of agony he knew he was at the right place.

"Show time." He mumbled before opening the door slowly.

She was lying in a small hammock like bed holding her very swollen stomach and groaning every few seconds. "Get the hell out of here Ben." She snapped with her back turned to me. Damn she was good.

I closed the door behind myself and let my armor slide back into the wrist watch before grinning at her, "What, aren't you happy to see me sweet heart?" He taunted making her antenna flatten in anger.

"Never, now what the hell do you want?" She spat back before rolling over with a grunt of pain and effort.

"Well we have a slight issue and you owe me a favor." Ben started as she sat up and put a hand on her pounding head.

"I owe you nothing." She hissed right as her phone started ringing. I rolled my eyes and leaned up against a door waving at her to answer the call. "Hold on."

"Hello?" She snapped angrily.

"Nice to know I'm loved." The person on the other end said sarcastically.

"Oh babe I'm sorry, I uhh didn't realize it was you…" She said back with horrified eyes.

'He doesn't know.' Ben thought evilly and cracked his knuckles loudly getting ready to beat up a pregnant lady.

"Is work stressing you out, you seem kind of uptight about stuff?"

"Yeah, oh yeah it's stressful anyways can I call you back sweetie I'm uhh in the middle of a very important conversation." She groaned sarcastically.

"Another boring meeting?"

"Worse, but I have to go. I love you and don't forget it, call you later. Bye." She ended with a sigh before closing the phone and tossing it aside, "Now where were we?"

"He doesn't know you're pregnant does he?"

"None of your business." She spat back.

"Well anyways, I need that child in your stomach soooo…" He said with a grin upon seeing her sudden change of behavior. He blinked once and heard something hit the wall next to him.

Jumping he opened his eyes and saw the sharp knife embedded into the wall and a very pissed off pregnant women glaring at him. "Ok, I guess we're going the hard way." He growled and shot something out of his wrist watch.

She tried to dodge but with the weight of a whole other person it was getting pretty hard. The small poison tipped needle embedded itself in her stomach and stayed there as she yowled in fear. She ripped the needle out and inspected it to see what it was going to do to her.

"It puts you to sleep; I can take the baby easier that way." Ben grinned as she gasped and fell over unconsciously.

Back at the labs Kayla and the others paced for what felt like hours in worry. Ben wasn't answering their calls and they needed to replace that child as soon as possible. It was getting late here on Irk by now but everyone was wide awake in fear that it may be the last time they get to see the darkness or anything before the tallest kill them.

Suddenly the doors hissed open and a tallish red eyed Irken with an eye patch walked in carrying a container with the pink gel in it. "Did you get it?" Kayla asked eagerly and hurried over to him.

"Yeah, you're just lucky this pregnant woman was too fat and distracted to fight back." Ben snapped and gave her the metal container. Inside was the small fetus gently wriggling around, trying to get comfortable in its new home. The gel inside the container keeps the child alive so even if taken from its true mother before birthing time it could survive in this tube.

Everyone cheered as Kayla replaced the alive baby with the dead one. They quickly disposed of the dead baby and made sure everything seemed exactly the same as it did when the tallest came in that morning to see their children.

"How can we ever thank you?" Kayla sighed in relief and turned around to see Ben walking out without a word.

"Just don't mention it, I hated this girl so I feel no pity but that child does not deserve this treatment." He growled before letting the doors shut behind him.

The scientists looked on at each other before shrugging and having a small 'party' that their lives were once again saved from the help of a revenge bound killer.

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**A/N: WHo is the mysterious mother and bla bla bla I'm bored I really don't care right now, in pain the usual lolol. REVIEW BYYYYEEEEE**

** ~Bad ass brady**


	11. Pirates and Sacrafices

_**A/N: OK so I know it's been like FOREVER since I've updated this book but I had some serious writers block. Thank you Treefrogs77 for inspiring me to at least get another chapter up. I didn't know really what to do for this chapter so it's kind of scatter brained and crazy and doesn't fit too well with the plot but the plot is now changing to this so...yeah. Sorry for the horribly long wait.**_

_**Also I woke up this moring to find out that a person I knew from school, a sophomore had killed herself because she was being bullied. I was so enraged and hurt by this sudden thing that I broke down crying and I haven't really stopped. So can all my readers please just take a moment of silence and send a prayer up to her. May she rest in peace while watching over the rest of us. **_

_**It's sickening to know people all around you can't see a better tomorrow so this is me saying, talk to your friends and actually listen. Go up and say hi to someone you don't know. Maybe compliment them on their outfit or strike up a conversation, you may actually save their life. And think about what you say before you say it, even if you hate the person would you really hate them so much to be ok with them killing themselves because they were bullied? I didn't think so, so please be aware of the people around you and make sure they're ok. I regret not doing the same for the people I'm close to but that's all about to change now. **_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own invader Zim. I only own my oc's and the plot line for this story. Thank you!**_

_**~Deathwish1234**_

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Zim's POV.

I yawned and stretched when I felt someone…or something poking my side. It was starting to annoy me so I had to wake up. I was going to destroy whatever it was for disturbing me from an actual peaceful rest for once.

I groaned and looked over to see Iris jabbing her elbow into my side unconsciously. Three cheers for tiny uncomfortable beds…! I smirked slightly until Iris jabbed her elbow into me again. She wasn't very good at resting without flailing and waking me up somehow.

"You know…usually I'm pleased to wake up and find an attractive woman in my bed, but you're pushing your limits," I teased quietly while running my hand over her cheek.

She surprisingly didn't wake up but no matter, it'd be all the more fun to mess with her if she was asleep. I stretched out as much as I could on the small cramped bed before sitting up and putting my hand on Iris's stomach. I knew what she thought I didn't know but I didn't want her any more stressed then she was.

My hand soothingly rubbed over the growing bump in Iris's stomach as I sighed and thought about it for a while, 'I wonder if it's going to be a boy or a girl…I kind of want a boy but I've already raised a girl so I know what to do with them…maybe it'd be better to have a girl.'

My train of thought stopped once Iris shifted under my hand. I looked back over to see that she was awake and giving me a curious look, "What?" I asked quietly. She eyed my hand for a second and I quickly removed it so I wouldn't stress her out.

We stared at each other awkwardly for a second before Iris finally spoke up, "What're you staring at?"

"My beautiful mate," I answered with a small smile, "What're you staring at?"

"My strange mate, but I can cope. I'm surprised you're up so early, did I wake you?" She asked calmly and sat up with a small struggle.

"No but your elbow sure did, if I didn't know any better I'd think that elbow of yours has it out to get me," I teased and ran my hand down her leg. She tensed up for a second before calming down and taking in a deep breath.

"Well on such a small bed it's kind of hard not to want to push you off."

"Well gee thanks," I scoffed and rolled my eyes, "Are you hungry? I can beg for food."

Iris laughed while pulling me into a hug, "No, Zim. And you are not going to beg for food, that's not like you."

"Well sure it's not like me but I'd do it if you needed or wanted food," I shrugged and wrapped my arms around her gently. I made sure to avoid the stomach area in hopes that she wouldn't freak out on me again.

"Well then you're in luck, because I desire no food thank you."

"Alright but if I hear your stomach growl even once then I'm on my knees pleading, understand?" I said with a hint of humor. I was serious though, I can't have her not eating, especially when she's carrying.

"Ok, Zim. Even though you know, Irken's stomachs can't growl until they're ready to die," Iris said and rolled her eyes as I gently started pushing her back down into the bed.

"Well if you're dying, I'd have to give you CPR."

"I'm not dying," Iris said bluntly making me laugh and crawl on top of her. I sat on her hips and straddled her waist while her eyes narrowed at me and she tensed up, "But you will by dying if you don't get off of me."

"Would you give me CPR if I was dying?" I asked with big puppy dog eyes. She looked at me for a minute before sighing and cursing under her breath.

"Yes, Zim. I'd give you CRP if you were dying."

"THEN I'M DYING!" I shouted dramatically. Iris laughed again and rolled her eyes at my stupidity.

"No you're not," Iris scoffed as I leaned down over her and put my hands on either side of her head.

"Hmmm…" I said while giving her a soft peck on the lips, "No…" Another peck, "No I'm pretty sure I'm dying." Iris laughed sarcastically as I leaned in to kiss her again just for longer. I smirked through the kiss and let my hands trail down her sides and onto her thighs.

"No, Zim…not happening," She said and broke away from me. I pouted and gave her the puppy eyes while applying small kisses to her neck.

"But…But Iris," I complained and stuck out my lower lip in a pout.

"No, we're being held captive on an enemy vessel and you want to mess around? Zim you're utterly insane," Iris shot back and crossed her arms over her chest to give me a serious look.

"Isn't that why I'm here in the first place?" I teased and slid off of her so she'd relax. She rolled her eyes and glanced down at her stomach before glancing back over at me.

"I need to talk to you about something, Zim," Iris said through a deep intake of air. My antenna perked in curiosity and I opened my mouth to reply but nothing came out because I was thrown into a wall when the ship shook and lurched in an unhealthy state, "Zim! Are you alright?!" I heard Iris shout as my body collided with the floor.

"Ow…that was not fun, I'm alright, Iris. Any ideas as to what that might've been?" I called back.

"Well we've either landed on Irk, being hit by an asteroid belt…or we're under attack by pirates. I think I'd choose pirates if I had to choose but hey, I don't know." I gulped upon hearing this. I also noticed the door was broken off at the hinges and leaning awkwardly against its frame.

"Iris, I'm going to go check things out. You stay here ok?" I said calmly while eyeing the door suspiciously. It was rather quiet on the hall of the ship now and I could never be too careful about things so I didn't want my mate being in danger if pirates were here.

"What're you going to leave me here alone?" Iris asked with a hint of fear in her voice. It was unmistakable but if I knew her she'd argue it any day.

"Just for a minute, it'll be alright," I swore and stalked towards the door. I grabbed the heavy metal door and ripped it the rest of the way off its hinges before setting it down on the ground and peering around to see…nothing.

"You're not seriously considering leaving me here alone are you!?" Iris asked frantically while struggling out of the bed. I turned back to her and walked over to wrap my arms around her gently.

"Iris, I need to protect you, which means you need to stay somewhere safe, which would be in this room or the closet."

"I can defend myself, Zim!" Iris protested making me frown slightly.

"I know you can, but not while you're carrying my child. It's my turn to protect you until you give birth," Iris's eyes snapped wide open in shock as a blush spread across her face.

"How…did you know about that?"

"I'm not as dumb as I look, it became fairly obvious when you started getting paranoid around me and when you refused to tell me what was going on. But we'll talk about this later, for now stay here and hide." I said as quickly as possible before leaning in to kiss her quickly and rush out the door.

"Zim!" I heard her call but I ignored it. I needed to find out what was happening.

I slunk down the hall ways making sure to check down every hall way before entering it fully. I peered down the next hall way but quickly flung myself backwards upon seeing a few figures yelling about something towards the end of it.

The ship shook violently again making me stumble and grab onto the wall for support. I heard more shouting and something being slammed against a wall. This was probably the best time to run but my curiosity fueled my veins and instead of running, I crept closer towards where the action was.

I saw a coated figure slamming someone up against the wall and pointing a gun into their face. The coated figure looked to be Vortarian but he looked…strange. He was wearing a strange black hat and some kind of bandanna covering the lower half of his face so only his creepy looking yellow eyes were showing along with the scar that settled around the eye in a crescent moon shape.

"Where is the princess?!" The pirate shouted at the person he was pinning. It was now safe to say that it was Nina whom was getting pinned up against the wall but then where was Ben?

"Nowhere you'll ever find her," Nina spat back in his face. The man growled angrily and moved one of his hands over her throat where he grasped it tightly and squeezed.

"You have three seconds to tell me where she is or I'll kill you."

"I don't know where she is," Nina coughed back while struggling in the man's iron like grip.

"Three…"

"I DON'T KNOW!"

"Two…"

"BEN, she's with, Ben!"

The Vortarian stopped counting down as his eyes seemed to brighten with glee. Damn Nina she's a freaking backstabbing cheat! Giving away my daughters location like that! "Good girl," he said before squeezing her neck again, "But now, I have no reason for you to live."

My eyes snapped wide open as I heard a sickening crack. Nina fell limp in the man's grasp and he dropped her to the floor like she was nothing but a piece of trash. He turned back towards his comrades and sighed, "Search the ship. Take anything that may be of some value. Find the princess and kill anyone who gets in your way."

"Yes captain!" His men shouted back and broke away from him down two different hallways to search for Cari.

'Iris…' I thought in horror. They'd find her and kill her or take her as their own personal slave…there was no way in hell I was about to let that happen.

I quickly spun around and sped down the hall way trying to remember how I'd made it to that point in the first place. Iris's room had to be around here somewhere! She can't just disappear!

I fled around a corner and sighed upon seeing the broken door I'd set on the ground. I sprinted into the room and frantically glanced around to see Iris trying to hide herself near the closet, "Iris it's just me, we've gotta go."

"What, why?" Iris asked back and poked her head out from where she was previously hiding. She took one glance at me before noticing my seriousness and getting up.

"Nina's dead."

"WHAT!?"

"You were right, there are pirates on board. They're looking for, Cari. I have no idea where both, Ben and Cari are. I could care less about, Ben but we need to find out where, Cari is." I said quickly and hurried over to wrap an arm around her.

"Where the hell are we supposed to go!?"

"I don't know!" I said in a frustrated voice, "I just know that I need to get you out of here. There has to be some kind of escape pod on this ship right? Well that's where I'm going to get you."

"I am not leaving you here, Zim. If that's what you're hinting to it's not happening."

"You will do what needs to be done, even if it means leaving me behind."

"That's like leaving you to face death alone! If we're going to die we're going to die together!"

"No we are NOT because you are carrying my baby! If it was just us I'd say let's kick some ass, but it's not about us anymore, Iris!" She went silent when I snapped at her. I of course felt guilty for snapping but it didn't matter right now, I needed to get her out of here.

I helped her hurry out the door and took one last glance down the hall to make sure no one was coming before feeling the ship lurch again. Both Iris and I stumbled sideways but I pulled her back up to help her balance and we continued to rush down the hall. I could hear voices coming down from many different halls and I had no idea where to go so I was starting to get nervous, especially with Iris and Cari in harm's way.

I looked straight ahead while lifting my antenna on my head to catch sound frequencies better. Voices were coming from behind us, to the right of us and in front of us…that meant go left, "This way," I ushered Iris while grabbing her hand tightly and pulling her down the left hall way.

We took a few more corners before I stopped upon seeing a door open. I pushed Iris behind me and got ready to fight when I saw who emerged from the door, "Stay here princess, I'm going to prepare an escape pod." _Ben…_

"Ben!" I snapped making Ben jump and spin around to face me. His eyes were wide as he stared at both Iris and I, "Nina's dead, there're pirates around every corner and you are hiding my daughter in a plainly obvious room!"

"Well at least I'm trying to keep her safe, would you rather me give her to them?"

"No you're just a soulless rule follower. Get out of my way I need to see my daughter," I spat back and kept Iris close to me while shoving Ben aside and prying the door open. Cari was shaking and curled up inside the room with wide eyes. She was obviously scared.

"Dad!?" She said in disbelief.

I smiled gently at her before nodding and pulling Iris closer to myself so she was away from Ben, "Come on sweetie, we need to go."

"Ben go prepare the escape pods," Iris hissed while taking in deep breaths.

"Why should I help you?" Ben growled back.

"If you ever truly cared about me once then you will help me escape with my family," Iris hissed back making me snap my gaze over to Ben and glare. She was mine and only mine.

Ben and Iris glared at each other for a minute before Ben looked over at Cari then me then back at Iris. His expression softened and he sighed angrily to himself, "Fine, its three hall ways down to the left, meet me there in five minutes, hopefully none of us will die by that time."

"Thank you," Iris sighed and looked over at me as I continued to glare at Ben. She elbowed me making me look at her in jealousy. Pretty sad that I was jealous I know but they were together before I was with Iris so that means Ben got everything Iris can give before I got it, which didn't sit well in my stomach.

Ben nodded and ran down the hall way while pulling a pistol out of his leg strap, he then rounded the corner and disappeared from sight, "You're actually going to trust him?" I asked in an appalled voice.

"For once…yes, yes I am."

I growled inwardly before turning back to Cari whom was still shaking but now staring up at me and trying to stand. My eyes scanned her body and I saw that she was clutching something in her hand, "Cari what's wrong?"

She looked up again before removing her hand from where a small but deep cut was oozing out blood from the side of her neck, "They know I'm here," She said in a scared voice.

I hurried forward with Iris and wrapped an arm around Cari's waist, "That's why we need to go, here," I said while ripping a piece of my over shirt off and folding it before handing it to her and helping her apply it to her wound, "Put pressure on it to stop the bleeding and stay next to me at all times."

Cari nodded and grabbed my free hand as we exited the room and hurried down the hall that Ben had recently slipped down. I tried to remember what Ben said about where the escape pods would be when I felt Iris tug on my hand, "What?"

"There's people, get down," She whispered back. I pulled both of them down next to me and crouched behind the wall as two people walked obliviously around the corner. I was praying that they wouldn't turn around and notice us seeing as they were rather large men and very heavily armed. I didn't stand a chance against them at the moment.

I took in a shaky breath of relief when they continued down the hall and started searching rooms, grabbing anything that might have some value, "Alright come on," I whispered and pulled both Cari and Iris up before continuing around the corner and into a large room.

Ben was already there furiously typing in coordinates when he turned his head to look/glare at us, "We've got two minutes to pile into the escape pods. Only problem is if the pirates come in they can deactivate the launch and kill us, we'll have to wait until there's nearly no time left, then the last person can jump in and we should be safe."

Iris stiffened up next to me and cast a worried glance over to me. I evenly met her look and sighed before nodding and walking Iris over to the open pod, "What're you doing?" Iris asked as I lifted her up bridal style and set her in the pod.

I didn't answer her right away as I started buckling her in, "Do you have anything soft?" I asked Ben in a calm voice. I had to stay calm, besides there was only a minute fifteen seconds left before we can launch. We'll be fine.

"Emergency blankets and a backpack why?" Ben answered.

"I need them to help cushion, Iris." I responded and walked over to grab the items he pointed out before walking back over and helping Cari into the pod. Only 45 seconds left to go.

"Zim what the hell are you doing?" Iris growled when I folded the blanket and put it over her stomach before wrapping the chest seat belt around it and tightening it as much as I could, "Zim answer me."

"I'm keeping you safe, Cari here's a blanket," I told Iris before throwing the last blanket to Cari so she could wrap up in it.

"Zim-,"

"It'll be alright," I said softly even though I didn't feel that way. Twenty seconds left, "Ben come on," I called even though I despised him greatly; he'd be able to help protect Cari and Iris so I needed him alive.

Ben gave me a questioning look and opened his mouth to say something when the door burst open and two very angry looking pirates came in. My eyes snapped open in shock as our eyes locked. Worried to blood thirsty.

"Zim get in the pod!" Iris said in a worried shout as the pirates grinned at us. I looked over at Ben whom was pulling his pistol back out and aiming it at them.

Ten seconds left, "Well well well, nice to see you all gathered in the same room so we didn't have to work TOO hard to find you." I glared at the pirates and clenched my fists.

"Zim it's too late, get in the pod and let's go!" Iris snapped. I looked back over at her and quickly turned around to grab her jaw and kiss her passionately.

"It's not too late…it'll never be too late. Stay safe," I whispered as the pirates rushed forward towards us.

"ZIM!" Iris shouted upon realizing what I was about to do.

I spun around ignoring her pleas and slammed my fist into the side of an approaching pirates face, "Get in, Ben!" I shouted as the countdown started chanting five…four.

"Are you kidding me, and miss this action? In your dreams pretty boy." I growled angrily, I didn't have time for this.

"Take care of my mate," I spat while turning and shoving him into the pod as the countdown struck one, "TAKE CARE OF HER!" I shouted when Iris started shouting for me.

I turned back around to get punched in the gut and slammed back into the dash board. However it was ok because the pod was preceding its launch, nothing could stop it now, "You'll never get her," I spat at the pirates as they angrily started shouting orders to each other.

The yellow eyed Vortarian walked into the room as someone grabbed my throat and pinned me down onto the dash board. Two others came over and pinned my wrists so I was completely helpless and at the mercy of a blood thirsty pirate.

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_**A/N: WEll...Zim knows about Iris's 'sickness,' he actually trusted Ben to keep his daughter and his mate safe and sacrificed himself to save all three of them. Damn, so what do you think? Only way to tell me is through reviews! Thankyou! And hopefully I will have more inspiration to continue on with this book until it's over =D**_

_**~Deathwish1234**_


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